The Cancer Research Institute presents the XVIth meeting in its
International Cancer Immunotherapy Symposium Series
and 2008 Cancer Vaccine Consortium Colloquium

September 15-17, 2008
Millennium Hotel Conference Center
New York, NY

About the Cancer Research Institute International Symposia Series

The Institute’s International Symposia Series, established in 1991, is considered by many as "the Davos of cancer immunology," where the world's scientific leaders in immunology and tumor immunology gather together to shape the future course of cancer research. These annual meetings focus attention on progress in cancer vaccines and antibody-based therapies, the two central approaches of cancer immunology. Over the course of three days, researchers involved in the discovery and development of immune-based therapies for cancer share information, stimulating new ideas and collaborations that could benefit the development of experimental cancer immunotherapies.

This year the symposium has been combined with the 2008 Colloquium of the Cancer Vaccine Consortium, a 70-member association of academic institutions and biotech and pharmaceutical companies engaged in cancer vaccine discovery and development. Now a program of the Cancer Research Institute, the Consortium will resume its regular meetings in Spring 2009.

About this Year’s Meeting

This year’s meeting, Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy 2008: From Discovery to Development to Drug, held September 15-17, 2008, at the Millennium Conference Center in New York City attracted 350 immunologists and tumor immunologists from 165 academic institutions and biotech or pharmaceutical companies in 17 countries. Twenty-seven plenary speakers from academia and industry presented and discussed data from the latest laboratory investigations as well as both early- and late-phase clinical trials of cancer immunotherapies. 

The presentations were grouped into the following six sessions: (I) Cancer Immunoediting and Cancer and Inflammation; (II) Immunological Consequences of Current Cancer Therapy; (III) Cross Presentation and Tumor Stroma; (IV) Modulators of Immune Escape Mechanisms; (V) Adoptive Immunotherapy; and (VI) Biomarkers and Novel Clinical Parameters in Immunotherapeutic Clinical Trials. The meeting also included a poster session, presenting the research of 100 scientists working within immunology or tumor immunology. Individual abstracts, summaries, .mp3 audio recordings of the presentations, and photos are available, as well as the complete meeting program.

A special evening reception and dinner held the first evening at The Harvard Club provided an opportunity for CRI-funded fellows and predoctoral students to mingle with symposium speakers, CRI scientific advisors and trustees, and other friends of the Institute. At the dinner, CRI Scientific Advisory Council associate director Dr. Ellen Puré presented the Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology to Dr. Sankar Ghosh, who was a recipient of an Irvington Institute postdoctoral fellowship award (now the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute), and who has been a professor of immunobiology and professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at the Yale School of Medicine (to October 2008) and is now the Silverstein Professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University.

The following evening, symposium attendees, CRI trustees and scientific advisors, and others gathered to celebrate the 75th birthday of CRI Scientific Advisory Council director Dr. Lloyd J. Old. After a lively cocktail reception in the historic Hudson Theater lobby, celebrants were treated to a first-rate performance by the world-renowned Shanghai String Quartet. Following the musical program of Beethoven and Brahms, Dr. Old expressed his joy and gratitude for the assembly of gathered friends and colleagues, and later met with the members of the Shanghai String Quartet to congratulate them for their fine performance. CRI executive director Dr. Jill O'Donnell-Tormey surprised Dr. Old and other symposium attendees by opening the three-day conference with a tribute to Dr. Old that was accompanied by a slideshow movie of photographs of Dr. Old throughout his illustrious career as a scientific leader, a career that has established him as the "Father of Modern Tumor Immunology."

The Cancer Research Institute gratefully thanks the following sponsors for their generous support: