Preamble to the 2015 SITC immunotherapy biomarkers taskforce.

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Immunology
• Biomarker Research

Background:

• The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) has a history of focusing on immunologic monitoring and immune biomarkers.
• Recent advances in cancer immunotherapy, new technologies, and novel biomarkers necessitate a review of the current landscape.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the state of the art in cancer immunotherapy biomarkers.
• To identify current challenges and provide recommendations for the field.
• To address key areas including biomarker validation, technology identification, immune signatures, and tumor microenvironment analysis.

Main Methods:

• The SITC Immune Biomarkers Taskforce has reconvened.
• Working groups are addressing specific topics: (1) candidate biomarker validation, (2) promising technology identification, (3) high-throughput immune signature testing, and (4) pre-treatment tumor microenvironment investigation.

Main Results:

• The taskforce is actively reviewing the state of the art in cancer immunotherapy and immune biomarkers.
• Hurdles to further success in the field are being identified.
• Recommendations are being formulated for publication.

Conclusions:

• The SITC Immune Biomarkers Taskforce is poised to provide critical recommendations for advancing cancer immunotherapy.
• The findings will guide future research and clinical application of immune biomarkers.
• Publication in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) will disseminate these important insights.