Immune responses to cancer: from mathematics to clinics

Organizers:

Raluca EFTIMIE (University of Marie & Louis Pasteur, France ), Dumitru TRUCU, University of Dundee, UK

Description:

Over the last few decades, immunotherapy approaches have transformed cancer treatment through their focus on the patients’ immune systems. However, since cancer cells develop mechanisms through which they evade immune surveillance, many of the immunotherapies used have shown limited clinical success. Intra-tumour and inter-tumour heterogeneity also has an impact on the efficacy of immunotherapies and on the overall tumour evolution. To improve the clinical success of different immunotherapies, further approaches have been developed, some of which involve combinations therapies: from immunotherapies combined with chemotherapies or with radiation therapies, to bacterial or viral immunotherapies combined with other immunomodulators such as cytokines, etc. Moreover, mathematical and computational approaches have started to be used in combination with such treatment approaches, to pave the way towards personalised treatment strategies: from shedding light on the mechanisms of interactions between different such therapies, or between the immunotherapies and the cancer microenvironment, to the use of individual tumour characteristics to optimise treatment protocols or to improve predictions related to the clinical evolution of cancers. The goal of this mini-symposium is to showcase some state-of-the-art mathematical and computational results in the area, to emphasise the importance of mathematical models in clinical decisions related to cancer immunotherapies.

Diversity Statement:

The speakers of this proposed mini-symposium are from different continents and geographical areas (USA, Israel, South Korea, UAE and Germany), and have both academic and industrial experience.