Cancer immunotherapy achieves breakthrough status: 12th annual meeting of the association for cancer immunotherapy (CIMT), Mainz, Germany, May 6–8, 2014

Excerpt

In December 2013, the Science magazine has designated cancer immunotherapy (CIMT) as the breakthrough of the year mainly due to clinical success stories in the area of checkpoint inhibitory antibodies and cellular gene therapy. This year’s CIMT 2014 meeting covered these recent success stories as well as additional technologies and therapeutic concepts that may form the base for the next wave of innovation to reach patients in the near future. Reflecting the increasing attention the field is attracting, the annual meeting of the Association for CIMT could observe yet another rise in the number of international participants (n = 950). A total of 85 used the opportunity to give lectures and 321 presented their cutting-edge innovations in poster sessions. CIMT offered a sizable stage for the dissemination and intensive discussion of research and development efforts in the areas of tumor vaccination, combination therapy, tumor microenvironment, immunoguiding, immunoinformatics and genomics, cellular therapies and multiple measures to improve immunity, thereby reflecting current trends and the state of the art in the field of cancer immunotherapy. The following is a review of the highlights of the CIMT 2014 meeting. …