An introduction to progress made in developing novel immunotherapies for solid tumours (excluding immune checkpoint inhibitors).
Overview
This course emphasises the progress made in developing novel immunotherapies for solid tumours, such as CAR T cell therapy, TCR-engineered T cell therapy, tumour infiltrating lymphocytes, T cell engagers, and vaccine-based treatments.
Over the course of one morning, Dr Elaine Vickers – a leading independent educator on the science of new cancer treatments – discusses novel approaches that may have a future as standard treatments for solid tumours including features of solid tumours that provoke the immune system and those that allow cancer cells to survive and thrive.
Elaine will describe cancers where novel immunotherapies are being most intensively explored, such as in the treatment of:
- cancers already known to be sensitive to immunotherapy, such as melanoma skin cancer
- cancers where new treatments are desperately needed, such as pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma
- cancers where a particularly promising target has been identified, such as Claudin 18.2 in stomach cancer and other GI cancers.
In the second session of the morning, Elaine focuses on cell-based immunotherapies such as TIL (tumour infiltrating lymphocyte) therapy, CAR T cell therapy, and TCR-engineered T cell therapy. She explains why we haven’t made more progress with these treatments and explores how this might change in the future.
In the final session, Elaine will examine some of the most innovative and exciting immunotherapies being developed, including T cell engagers and mRNA vaccines.
Audience
This content is ideal for research nurses, clinical nurse specialists, pharmacists, and clinical trials coordinators. It may also interest other healthcare professionals wanting to improve their understanding of immunotherapy.
Attendance on Elaine’s other course: A Beginner’s Guide to Cancer Immunotherapy would be ideal preparation for this course.
As ever, Elaine will use colourful illustrations and jargon-free explanations to help learners gain a broad understanding of the concepts covered.
Course delivery
The course delivery date is Wednesday 27th November 2024 and is to be delivered online via Microsoft Teams as follows:
9.30am – Introduction to novel immunotherapies for solid tumours
- The cancer-immunity cycle
- Why not every cancer is sensitive to immunotherapy; exploring ‘Hot’, ‘Cold’, ‘Immune-suppressed’ and ‘Immune-excluded’ cancers
- How cancer’s relationship with the immune system differs in different cancer types and the mechanisms that drive this
- Introducing the cancers in which novel immunotherapies are being explored
Q&A/break
10.30am – Progress in cell-based immunotherapy for solid tumours
- Where it started: TIL (tumour infiltrating lymphocyte) therapy
- Introduction to CAR T cell therapy
- CAR proteins and their targets
- Why don’t we have CAR T cell therapies for solid tumours?
- An alternative approach: TCR-engineered T cells
Q&A/break
11.30am – Treatment vaccines, T cell engagers and other novel approaches in trials
- Vaccine-based immunotherapy – the general idea and the multitude of approaches being investigated
- Promising results from mRNA vaccine trials
- Tebentafusp and tarlatamab – the first T cell engagers approved for solid tumours
- Immunotherapies that leverage macrophages and NK cells
Q&A
12.30pm – close
Course lead
Dr Elaine Vickers, PhD of Science Communicated Ltd has worked as a cancer educator for over twenty years and has previously acted as science communicator for three of the UK’s leading medical research charities, including four years in the Science Information team at Cancer Research UK.
Elaine is passionate about demystifying the science behind cancer biology and the latest cancer treatments such as kinase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies and immunotherapies.
She is experienced in teaching people with any level of scientific or medical knowledge from cancer patients through to medical oncologists translating complex and often overwhelming topics into easily digestible and understandable knowledge, using colourful illustrations to explain scientific concepts.
The second edition of her book, A Beginner’s Guide to Targeted Cancer Treatments – commended by the British Medical Association book awards – is due out by the end of 2024.
Booking
To book a place on this course go to Tickets at the bottom of the page.
At checkout you can make an online card payment or enter a coupon code to make alternative payment arrangements.
Alternative payment arrangements include:
- requesting an invoice (INVOICE),
- The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust staff internal funding (NUTH) – you will need to complete a Trust study leave form.
Please see the Making payments & Coupons sections of the Help and FAQs.