The 15th International Conference On Progress In Vaccination Against Cancer (PIVAC-15)

The main topic of PIVAC-15 will be cancer vaccines in the era of immunomodulatory antibodies. Results from the last 4 or 5 years, and especially the results of clinical trials released last year, have convinced many hitherto sceptical scientists and clinicians that immunotherapy can work. Success in treating otherwise refractory cancers by T cell checkpoint blockade have resulted in remarkable successes, but still only in a fraction of patients and apparently not in all tumour types. Non-responding patients may require boosting with anti-cancer vaccines or adoptive immunotherapy to enhance or substitute for authochtonous anti-tumour responses, and/or they may require additional immunomodulation to counteract tumour-mediated immunosuppression. These issues will be addressed at the PIVAC-15 meeting.