Cancer Immunotherapy Research Centers

Cancer immunotherapy is an attempt to stimulate the body’s immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells. Immunotherapy is a rapidly evolving field with many researchers (listed below) using different approaches to determine what will weaken the tumor cell’s ability to evade detection by the immune system and to strengthen the immune system’s ability to destroy the tumor cells.

The principal approaches currently under investigation include cancer vaccines, adoptive immunotherapy or T-cell therapies, monoclonal antibodies, and cytokine therapy. The types of cancer for which these approaches have been used in experimental research studies and clinical trials include breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, renal cell or kidney cancer, colon cancer, and melanoma or skin cancer.

The proteins targeted by the researchers have included the following: HER2/neu and MUC-1 (breast cancer); CEA (colon cancer); PSA (prostate cancer); gp100 (melanoma). Each of these researchers seeks to treat, and one day prevent, cancer by enlisting the body’s own immune system.

Northwest:

Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center, Portland, OR

The Franz Cancer Center is dedicated to both basic science and patient-based research that focuses on the immune system in the treatment of cancer. We are now translating the latest laboratory findings to a number of clinical trials for patients with cancer, including breast cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer.

The Laboratory of Molecular & Tumor Immunology, led by Dr. Fox, focuses on creating tumor vaccines to provoke the immune system to produce tumor killing lymphocytes. The Laboratory of Basic Immunology, headed by Dr. Weinberg, is examining the role of members of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family, particularly OX-40, to determine whether the same white blood cells that destroy healthy tissue in autoimmune diseases can be directed against cancer cells to eradicate tumors. The Laboratory of Cellular Immunology has developed a breast cancer vaccine that is being tested in women with metastatic breast cancer.

Walter J. Urba, MD, PhD

Bernard A. Fox, PhD

Andrew D. Weinberg, Ph.D.

Edwin B. Walker, Ph.D.

Hung-Ming Hu, Ph.D.

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Mary L. (Nora) Disis, MD

John A. Thompson, MD

Southwest:

University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA

Dennis J. Slamon, MD, PhD

Robert A. Figlin, MD

University of Southern California, Norris Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD

Arizona Cancer Center, University of Arizona, Tucson

Evan Hersh, MD

Midwest:

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Jeffrey A. Sosman, MD

University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI

Alfred E. Chang, MD

Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH

Ronald M. Bokowski, MD

Suyu Shu, PhD

East:

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

Michael B. Atkins, MD

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Lynn M. Schuchter, MD

University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

John M. Kirkwood, MD

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Alan N, Houghton, Jr., MD

Paul B. Chapman, MD

National Cancer Institute, Surgery Branch, Bethesda, MD

Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD (Surgery Branch)

Samir Khleif, MD (Naval Hospital)

Southeast

Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC

Herbert Kim Lyerly, MD

Michael A. Morse, MD

University of Alabama, Birmingham, Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL

Albert F. Lo Buglio, MD