Immuno-Oncology 360°: Taking Immunotherapy to the Next Level

From February 7-9, some of the most important minds in immunotherapy will meet for the fourth annual Immuno-Oncology 360° (IO360) at New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel. Attendees will represent the entire spectrum of the field’s stakeholders—including scientific leaders from academia and industry, patient advocates, regulators, drug developers, analysts, and investors. 

“It’s the broadest meeting that has ever existed in this space,” according to conference co-chair Axel Hoos, MD, PhD, a senior vice president at GlaxoSmithKline who also serves as co-chair of the Cancer Research Institute Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium. “There is no other meeting like it.”

IO360’s fourth installment comes at a special time when immunotherapy is in some ways at the end of its beginning. Immunotherapy’s benefits have already been proven, at least in certain subsets of patients. Now, said Hoos, the challenge is to “go from step one—making it work—to step two—fine-tuning it and addressing specific patient needs through biomarkers and combinations.” In this way, he hopes that we can “increase the number of patients that can be cured from a small number to a much larger number.”

To achieve this, Hoos emphasized the importance of collaborations between the diverse types of stakeholders that will be present at IO360, because this endeavor is “way too big a task for any individual player.”  

While the science of immunotherapy—including discovery and translational science as well as emerging technologies and biomarkers—still comprises the bulk of IO360’s content, the other offerings at this year’s meeting have been significantly supplemented. 

In addition to “the most relevant research and development from key leadership who are at the pulse of cancer immunotherapy,” IO360 will also focus on the developmental, clinical, and investment-related aspects of these immune-based approaches against cancer. 

Furthermore, by bringing together experts in the science of immunotherapy along with those experienced in funding these ventures and advancing them into the clinic, Hoos points out how IO360 is poised to enable “greater opportunities to network, to spark new collaborations.”

Learn more about the 2018 conference’s agenda and be sure to check back in the coming weeks for our recap of the highlights from IO360!

Photo by Dan Freeman on Unsplash