Exploring the Future of Cancer Immunotherapy, with Dr. Nina Bhardwaj

The field of cancer immunotherapy has achieved great progress already in 2023. With each passing day, new advancements and discoveries fuel hope that even greater breakthroughs are within reach, bringing renewed anticipation for what’s on the horizon.

To illuminate these remarkable developments, we spoke with renowned immunologist Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as part of our Cancer Immunotherapy and You™ patient education webinar series.

In this webinar, Dr. Bhardwaj explores strides made in personalized immunotherapies as well as the technologies behind these new treatments and research avenues. Most notably, she highlights recent results relating to neoantigen vaccines, which target the unique, patient-specific mutations that characterize individuals’ tumors. In addition, she emphasizes the impact of new sequencing and spatiotemporal analysis tools that are helping to unravel more of cancer’s complexities, improving our understanding and clinical capabilities, including early detection methods.

Dr. Bhardwaj also discusses the significance of biomarkers in predicting responses to immunotherapy and managing potential side effects. Additionally, initiatives aimed at enhancing health equity and accessibility to clinical trials emerged as critical focal points, highlighting the necessity of inclusivity in advancing cancer research for marginalized communities.

The convergence of cutting-edge research, technological advancements, and informed clinical expertise has set the stage for an era where cancer immunotherapy holds the potential to transform lives and reshape the future of oncology. To learn more about the valuable insights shared by Dr. Bhardwaj, we invite you to watch the full conversation in the video interview below.

A former CRI fellow and current associate director CRI Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Bhardwaj has been named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 Researchers. Currently, she is the director of immunotherapy and co-director of the cancer immunology program at Mount Sinai’s Tisch Cancer Institute. Additionally, she is the Ward Coleman Chair in Cancer Research as well as a Professor of Medicine and Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The Cancer Immunotherapy and You™ webinar series is produced by the Cancer Research Institute and is hosted by our associate director of scientific content, Arthur N. Brodsky, PhD.