Commentary

Synopsis of the 6^th Walker's Cay Colloquium on Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy

W Martin Kast¹ , Hyam Levitsky² and Francesco M Marincola³

¹  Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

²  Department of Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

³  Immunogenetics Section, Department of Transfusion Medicine, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

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Journal of Translational Medicine 2004, 2:20doi:10.1186/1479-5876-2-20

Published:	22 June 2004

Abstract

The 6^th annual Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy Colloquium at Walker's Cay was held under the auspices of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute on March 10–13, 2004. The Colloquium consisted of a select group of 34 scientists representing academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. The main goal of this gathering was to promote in a peaceful and comfortable environment exchanges between basic and clinical science. The secondary benefit was to inspire novel bench to bedside ventures and at the same time provide feed back about promising and/or disappointing clinical results that could help re-frame some scientific question or guide the design of future trials. Several topics were covered that included tumor antigen discovery and validation, platforms for vaccine development, tolerance, immune suppression and tumor escape mechanisms, adoptive T cell therapy and dendritic cell-based therapies, clinical trials and assessment of response. Here we report salient points raised by speakers or by the audience during animated discussion that followed each individual presentation.