Defining the Critical Hurdles in Cancer Immunotherapy

ABSTRACT: Scientific discoveries that provide strong evidence of antitumor effects in preclinical models often encounter significant delays before being tested in patients with cancer. While some of these delays have a scientific basis, others do not. We need to do better. Innovative strategies need to move into early stage clinical trials as quickly as it is safe, and if successful, these therapies should efficiently obtain regulatory approval and widespread clinical application. In late 2009 and 2010 the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), convened an "Immunotherapy Summit" with representatives from immunotherapy organizations representing Europe, Japan, China and North America to discuss collaborations to improve development and delivery of cancer immunotherapy. One of the concepts raised by SITC and defined as critical by all parties was the need to identify hurdles that impede effective translation of cancer immunotherapy. With consensus on these hurdles, international working groups could be developed to make recommendations vetted by the participating organizations. These recommendations could then be considered by regulatory bodies, governmental and private funding agencies, pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions to facilitate changes necessary to accelerate clinical translation of novel immune-based cancer therapies. The critical hurdles identified by representatives of the collaborating organizations, now organized as the World Immunotherapy Council, are presented and discussed in this report. Some of the identified hurdles impede all investigators, others hinder investigators only in certain regions or institutions or are more relevant to specific types of immunotherapy or first-in-humans studies. Each of these hurdles can significantly delay clinical translation of promising advances in immunotherapy yet be overcome to improve outcomes of patients with cancer

Sensitization in Transplantation: Assessment of Risk (STAR) 2017 Working Group Meeting Report

Transplantation and autoimmunit

Status of child population health — the future of the country (part 1)

The article of the team of scientists of pediatricians and organizers of pediatric health care of Ukraine is devoted to the study of the main trends in the health status of children over last 22 years. The results of the analysis of the incidence and prevalence of diseases among Ukrainian child population, infant mortality rates over the past two decades demonstrates that they remain significantly higher than the average European indicators against the background of a progressive decrease in the number of child population at 3,16 million people. The prevalence of childhood diseases in Ukraine over past 22 years has grown by 41 %, the incidence of childhood diseases arose by 36 %. The article considers the ways of solving a number of new social and medico-ecological problems that negatively affect child health