The award of this year's Nobel prize in physiology or medicine to Dr Jim Allison and Dr Tasuku Honjo is a defining moment for cancer research that we want to recognize. You'll hear from Dr Allison on the very day he heard the announcement. We also take a closer look at what it takes to be a great scientist and explore the limitations on how many people the Nobel prize can recognize in a given year. If you want to increase your chance of winning, 1993 laureate Sir Richard Roberts FRS takes...

In this episode we continue our journey looking at the innate immune system and focus on some important immune cells called natural killer (NK) cells and their potential in cancer immunotherapy. You'll hear from both academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Todd Fehniger (Washington University in St Louis), Dr Michael Caligiuri (City of Hope), Dr Jeff Miller (Minnesota), Prof Eric Vivier (Innate Pharma via Marseille Immunopole), Dr Nick Huntington...

In this episode we explore the innate immune system and find out what it is, what it does and why it matters in both health and disease. You'll hear various perspectives from both academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Glen Barber (Miami), Prof George Coukos (Lausanne), Dr Adi Diab (MD Anderson), Dr Tom Dubensky (Tempest Therapeutics via Aduro Biotech), Dr Tom Gajewski (Chicago), Dr Jonathan Lancaster (Myriad), Dr Ira Mellman (Genentech), Prof...

In this episode we take a look a look at how cytokines can be employed to modulate the tumour microenvironment in favourable ways. You'll hear various perspectives from numerous academic and industry experts who are active in research in this field, including Dr Mario Sznol (Yale), Dr James Gulley (NCI), Dr Adi Diab (MD Anderson), Dr Jonathan Zalevsky (Nektar Therapeutics), Dr Sanjeev Mariathasan (Genentech), Prof Tom Powles (Barts Cancer Institute), Dr Kunle Odunsi (Roswell Park), and Dr...

Welcome back to Season 4! In this latest episode, we take a look at data from immunotherapy clinical trials from several different angles and investigate the challenges associated presented by different combination partners, control arms, patient populations, biomarkers, line of therapy, etc. When important phase 3 readouts hit the newswires, inevitable questions follow: - Is the data practice changing? - Which regimen should be used with which patient population? - What happens on the Weds...

In this episode we're exploring some controversial issues in cancer research including real world versus clinical trial experience and immune related toxicities, as well as highlighting strength and weaknesses around some encouraging new data with several therapies in development for different hematologic malignancies. Not everything about cancer immunotherapies is positive -- there are challenges associated with this promising approach too. Despite what many people may believe, it's not...

In this latest episode we're exploring an up and coming area of cancer research, namely therapeutic cancer vaccines. If we want to jumpstart the immune system in cold/non-inflamed/desert tumours, then we need to find ways to attract more T cells into the tumour(s). Cancer vaccines can potentially do that but they have had a bit of a chequered history, with many failures and at least in the US, only one has been approved by the FDA to date. In this show you'll hear from leading cancer...

In this episode we're exploring ways to jumpstart the immune system so that subsequent therapies can be more effective, especially in cold non-inflamed tumours. It is becoming increasingly clear that people with pre-existing immunity respond better to cancer immunotherapies. - What is it, why does it matter and how do we measure it? - What types of therapeutic approaches might be helpful for boosting it? In this show, you'll hear from some new and familiar expert voices alike: - Dr Jérôme...

In the latest episode of Novel Targets, we take a look at new developments in breast cancer. Breast cancer can be organised into several distinct subsets for the purposes of treatment: - Hormone sensitive disease (HR+) - HER2+ - Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) - Inflammatory breast cancer In addition, physicians also consider risk factors such as tumour size (T), whether the disease has spread to the lymph nodes (N) i.e. negative or positive, and whether there is metastasis...

Welcome back to Season 3. In this episode we're tackling one of the hottest topics in cancer research, why do cancer immunotherapies work in some people, but not in others? Why do they stop working? If we want to obtain long durable responses, then we have to understand and overcome resistance. Most of the interviews you'll hear were recorded at the 2017 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Washington DC. In this episode you'll hear leading cancer...

This episode was recorded at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego. You’ll hear excerpts from interviews with leading experts, who discuss some of the latest clinical data and controversies in liquid cancers and blood disorders. Dr Alexis Thompson (Northwestern University), who will be President of ASH in 2018, talks about some of the latest data in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), as well as how gene therapy and gene editing may provide a cure in the...

In this episode, listeners receive a ticket to ride the Copenhagen Metro to the 2016 Congress of ESMO, the European Society for Medical Oncology. Along the way we hear from experts about targeting ovarian cancer and some of the latest data on PARP inhibitors, biomarkers and novel immunotherapy combinations. Included are excerpts from interviews with Dr Rebecca Kristeleit (UCL), Dr Johnathan Lancaster (Myriad Genetic Laboratories), Dr Priti Hegde (Genentech) and Professor George Coukos...

In this episode, you’ll hear from two pioneers at the forefront of developing safe and effective Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Dr Michael Jensen is Director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He talks about ways in which CAR T cell therapy can be made safer as well as provide more durable remissions. In the language of software development, we’re at version 2 for hematologic malignancies and version 1 for solid...

This episode discusses some of the cancer immunotherapy data presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. It’s the largest cancer meeting in the world, with over 35,000 attendees. You’ll hear Dr Johanna Bendell from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute talk about a clinical trial that combined a targeted therapy and a checkpoint inhibitor. Neither drug showed any activity on their own in microsatellite stable (MSS) colon cancer, but...

In this episode you’ll hear from Dr Bernie Fox (pictured), Dr Ina Rhee and Emeritus Professor Kees Melief. We talked to all three scientists at the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in New Orleans. One of the emerging challenges in developing new cancer immunotherapies, and in particular combination strategies, is that mouse models don’t always predict what will happen in humans. We’ve cured cancer in mice many times over, but it's tougher in humans...

Season 2 of Novel Targets kicks off with an episode on the Cancer Immunity Cycle. Back in 2013, Genentech scientists Drs Daniel Chen and Ira Mellman (pictured) published a paper in the journal Immunity: “Oncology meets Immunology: the cancer-immunity cycle.” It’s become a seminal paper and is frequently cited as a framework to help understand cancer immunotherapy and where the rate-limiting steps to target are. In this episode, you’ll hear Drs Chen and Mellman talk about the Cancer...

Episode 10 is on New Horizons in Hematology and features excerpts from interviews recorded at last December's annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). In Orlando, we spoke to experts about some of the latest data in AML, Multiple Myeloma and CLL at the meeting. You'll hear from: Dr Ian Flinn (pictured), Dr Richard Stone, Dr Paul Richardson and Dr Kanti Rai. There's more information on NovelTargets.com, including links to some of the abstracts and papers mentioned. This...

In this episode we're looking at how to make therapies that target our immune system more effective. Could it be as simple as changing the composition of the bacteria in the gut, the intestinal microbiome that contains a gazillion bugs? Dr Tom Gajewski (University of Chicago), pictured, describes research from his lab that shows the gut microbiome may impact the efficacy of checkpoint inhibitors. You'll also hear from Dr Marcel van den Brink (MSKCC) on how changing the composition of the...

A pioneer is someone who helps develop something new and prepares the way for others to follow. We want to harness our immune system to fight and cure cancer. In this episode you’ll hear from two (of the many) pioneers in the field of cancer immunotherapy: Dr Stephan Grupp (pictured) from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is leading the way in developing CAR T cell therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Dr Grupp is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University...

More than 19,000 people from over 100 countries travelled to Vienna at the end of September 2015 for the European Cancer Congress. Cancer immunotherapy was the hot topic of the meeting. There were several late-breaking abstracts for clinical trials with checkpoint inhibitors in bladder, renal and lung cancer. In this episode you’ll hear Professor Tom Powles from Barts Cancer Institute in London (pictured) discuss the exciting bladder and kidney cancer data presented in Vienna. You’ll hear...

Checkpoint inhibitors act to “release the break” cancer puts on the immune system. There are also immune agonists that are stimulatory in effect. They help to “step on the gas” and make the immune system more effective. In this episode you’ll hear Dr Holbrook Kohrt (pictured) talk about his research at Stanford University into agonists that target 4-1BB (CD137) and the potential of novel combinations of monoclonal antibodies. Holbrook Kohrt - In Memorium: It is with great sadness that since...

There are multiple ways to use the body's immune system to fight cancer. One novel approach is through Adoptive Cell Therapy - you take T lymphocytes or "T cells" out of a patient - these are the warriors of the immune system - manipulate them in some way in the laboratory, then expand them in terms of numbers and give them back to the patient. Two researchers who have pioneered work in this field are Dr Steven Rosenberg (pictured) who is Chief of the Surgery Branch at the National Cancer...

Checkpoint inhibitors do not work well in cancers where there is no underlying immune response. One example of such a non-inflamed tumor is prostate cancer. So a key question is how do we convert a non-inflamed tumor (few T Cells present) into an inflamed one (T cells plentiful and active)? We heard in Episode 2 that one way to potentially do this is by using a STING agonist. In this latest episode, using prostate cancer as an example, Dr James Gulley (pictured) from the National Cancer...

Lung cancer is the No 1 cause of cancer related death in the United States. Which is why the whole of this episode is devoted to the latest lung cancer data presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that took place recently in Chicago. In the podcast you'll hear from Dr Jack West (pictured) a medical oncologist and the President/Founder of GRACE, a non-profit focused on patient education. He shares his candid perspective on some of the...