WELCOME MESSAGE
3rd International Congress of Bioimmunotherapy of Cancer Congress Chairman
Dr. Takuya Tsunoda
(Showa University School of Medicine,
Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology)
In past decade, drug treatment for cancer has changed dramatically. Evidence for cancer immunotherapy has been accumulated, and immunotherapy plays an important role in the cancer treatment as an established new treatment. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have been approved for clinical use in many cancer types, and their clinical utility is increasingly proven. Clinical efficacy of cancer immunotherapy is demonstrated the “kangaroo tail phenomenon” due to the characteristic shape of the survival curve in the Kaplan-Meier curve. This indicates that there are some patients who do not die from cancer", that is, complete cure. It is no exaggeration to say that cancer immunotherapy is causing a paradigm change in cancer treatment. We humans have finally found a way for cancer to change from a "deadly disease" to a "chronic disease" like hypertension or diabetes.
At present, its "tail" is around 15 to 20%, but how to raise this is a major issue in the future. In order to increase the benefit of cancer immunotherapy to more patients, that is, what to do with combination therapy to enhance the effect, and to search for biomarkers that predict more effective patients. On the other hand, overcoming specific adverse events (immune-related adverse events), although which is less frequent than anticancer cytotoxic drugs, is also a major issue.
A This international conference of bioimmunotherapy of cancer (ICBC) will bring together physicians and researchers who are well-versed in world-renowned cancer immunotherapy, and will have enough time to provide world-leading information on cancer immunotherapy for future cancer treatments. With this method, which is not a general academic society, ICBC will be a meaningful and fruitful symposium.