NCI-IOTN-SITC-AAI Workshop on Combining Immunotherapy with Radiotherapy: Opportunities and Challenges for Clinical Translation (Overview)

 

Please visit the workshop summary webpage for more info, including links to the recordings.

Overview and Purpose

This workshop takes place on January 16-17, 2024 at the Natcher Conference Center on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, MD and will bring together senior leaders and experts as well as junior investigators and trainees who are focused on the therapeutic interactions between radiation and immunotherapies. Participants will include clinical researchers, translational and basic scientists, NCI staff, cooperative clinical trial group leaders, and industry representatives. Clinical studies in recent years demonstrate opportunities for improving patient outcomes through integration of immunotherapies with radiation for the treatment of certain patients with locoregionally advanced or early-stage cancers. Yet other studies have shown no effect and it remains unclear whether radiation therapy can alter response to immunotherapies to achieve clinically meaningful benefit. Presenters will evaluate the current state of clinical and preclinical sciences in this area and identify key challenges and opportunities for clinical translation of radiation-immunotherapy combinations.

Program Structure

The program will be a 1.5-day free event with in-person attendance and a virtual viewing option. The first day will focus on discussion-driven sessions with short talks and moderator-led panel discussions. Moderators will be charged with drawing out specific recommendations from speakers, panelists, and audience members regarding the critical steps and approaches that are needed to clarify and optimize interactions between radiation therapies and immunotherapies. The second day will include NCI and industry speakers and two breakout sessions to encourage face-to-face interactions on the topics of important challenges in the field and best design of pre-clinical and clinical studies. Please see the agenda for more details.

Organizing Committee

  • Zachary Morris, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, contact zmorris@humonc.wisc.edu
  • Sandra Demaria, Weill Cornell Medicine
  • Mansoor Ahmed, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • Heiko Enderling, MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Charles Drake, Janssen
  • Lawrence Fong, University of California San Francisco
  • Silvia Formenti, Weill Cornell Medicine
  • Ralph Weichselbaum, University of Chicago Medicine
  • Arta Monjazeb, University of California Davis
  • Andrew Sikora, MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Samir Khleif, Georgetown University
  • James Welsh, MD Anderson Cancer Center
  • Michael Demetriou, University of California Irvine
  • Connie Sommers, NCI
  • Julie Hong, NCI
  • Norman Coleman, NCI
  • Jacek Capala, NCI
  • Himangi Marathe, IOTN, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Alan Hutson, IOTN, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Co-sponsors

Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)

The American Association of Immunologists (AAI)