A Cure Within

Scientists Unleashing The Immune System to Kill Cancer

Neil Canavan

A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Publication

Includes interviews with 2018 Nobel Prize Winners James Allison and Tasuku Honjo

The way we treat cancer is about to change forever. This revolution--and it is precisely that--was sparked not by the invention of a new drug, but by the evolution of an entirely new way of thinking about and managing cancer. Going forward, doctors will not use pharmaceuticals to attack tumors--not directly. Rather, the oncologist will treat the patient's immune system with a drug, and then the patient will treat the tumor.

Based entirely on interviews with the investigators, this book is the story of the immuno-oncology pioneers. It's a story of failure, resurrection, and success. It's a story about science, it's a story about discovery, and intuition, and cunning. It's a peek into the lives and thoughts of some of the most gifted medical scientists on the planet.

A Cure Within

Scientists Unleashing The Immune System to Kill Cancer

Neil Canavan

A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Publication

Description

Includes interviews with 2018 Nobel Prize Winners James Allison and Tasuku Honjo

The way we treat cancer is about to change forever. This revolution--and it is precisely that--was sparked not by the invention of a new drug, but by the evolution of an entirely new way of thinking about and managing cancer. Going forward, doctors will not use pharmaceuticals to attack tumors--not directly. Rather, the oncologist will treat the patient's immune system with a drug, and then the patient will treat the tumor.

Based entirely on interviews with the investigators, this book is the story of the immuno-oncology pioneers. It's a story of failure, resurrection, and success. It's a story about science, it's a story about discovery, and intuition, and cunning. It's a peek into the lives and thoughts of some of the most gifted medical scientists on the planet.

This is not a textbook. This is a life book. This technology will save/is saving lives, and the book celebrates the living, breathing, thinking, charming, arrogant, funny, obstinate, amazing human beings who are making immuno-oncology happen.

"The stories and lives shared in this book show readers the decades of devotion and passion it takes to imagine a better world and then make it happen. If this book motivates even one more similarly talented and visionary investigator to deliver on their promise it would be a wonderful success." -- Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO
Chief Executive Officer, American Society of Clinical Oncology

A Cure Within

Scientists Unleashing The Immune System to Kill Cancer

Neil Canavan

A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Publication

Foreword, by Jill O'Donnell-Tormey
Acknowledgments
Introduction

SECTION I: CTLA-4
1. James Allison
2. Jedd Wolchok
3. Axel Hoos

SECTION II: PD-1
4. Tasuku Honjo
5. Gordon Freeman
6. Suzanne L. Topalian

SECTION III: Immune Surveillance
7. Robert Schreiber, Cancer Immunoediting
SECTION IV: Vaccines
8. Drew Pardoll
9. Elizabeth Jaffee

SECTION V: Foundational Discoveries, Proof of Concept
10. Ralph Steinman, Dendritic Cells
11. Tak Mak, T-Cell Receptor (TCR)
12. Philip Greenberg, Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT)
13. Steven Rosenberg, Interleukin-2 (IL-2)

SECTION VI: Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Cells (CAR-Ts)
14. Zelig Eshhar
15. Patrick Hwu
16. Carl June
17. Michel Sadelain

SECTION VII: Business at the Bench: One Protein, One Virus
18. Patrick Baeuerle, Bispecific Antibodies
19. Robert Coffin, Oncolytics

SECTION VIII: T Regulatory Cells (Tregs)
20. Shimon Sakaguchi
21. Jeff Bluestone

SECTION IX: Cells and Signals: Good and Bad
22. David Munn, Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase (IDO) (Signal)
23. Dmitry Gabrilovich, Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs) (Cell)
24. Tom Gajewski, Stimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) (Signal)
25. Laurence Zitvogel, Microbiome (Cell)

Epilogue
Glossary
Index

A Cure Within

Scientists Unleashing The Immune System to Kill Cancer

Neil Canavan

A Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Publication

Author Information

Neil Canavan is a veteran journalist specializing in science and medicine, a career he embarked upon after earning a master's degree in molecular and cellular biodynamics from Rutgers University. With more than 15 years of reporting experience, and some 200 feature articles to his credit Neil has written for such news outlets as WebMD, Medscape, Drug Discovery and Development Magazine, and The Scientist. Currently, Neil is a contributing editor to The Oncology Business Review where he has written many articles on the technology of, and clinical outcomes for cancer immunotherapy.

Since 2014 Neil has held the position of Scientific Advisor at The Trout Group, a New York-based investor relations firm focused on healthcare biotechnology. The Trout Group has 30 clients in the oncology space, with many of those companies pursuing the development of cancer immunotherapies.

Contributors:

James Allison, Ph.D.
Professor, Chair of Immunology
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX

Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Melanoma & Immunotherapeutics
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY

Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D.
Head, Therapeutic Area Oncology & Immuno-Oncology
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals
Collegeville, PA

Tasuku Honjo, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine
Kyoto University
Kyoto, Japan

Gordon Freeman, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Suzanne L. Topalian, M.D.
Professor, Surgery and Oncology
Director, Melanoma Program, Kimmel Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Robert Schreiber, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO

Drew Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Director, Cancer Immunology and Hematopoiesis Program
Professor of Oncology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D.
Deputy Director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Co-Director, Cancer Immunology Program
John Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

Ralph Steinman, M.D.

Tak Mak, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Toronto, Canada

Philip Greenberg, M.D.
Head, Program in Immunology
Professor of Medicine and Immunotherapy
University of Washington, Seattle

Steven Rosenberg M.D., Ph.D.
Chief, Surgery Branch
Head, Tumor Immunology Section
National Cancer Institute, NIH
Washington, DC

Zelig Eshhar, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemical and Cellular Immunology
Weizmann Institute of Science

Patrick Hwu, M.D.
Department Chair, Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX

Capt. Carl June, M.D. (Ret.)
Director, Translational Research Program
Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

Michel Sadelain, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Center for Cell Engineering & Gene Transfer and Gene Expression Laboratory
Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY

Patrick Baeuerle, Ph.D.
Managing Director
MPM Capital
Boston, MA

Robert Coffin, Ph.D.
Cofounder, CEO
Replimune
Woburn, MA

Shimon Sakaguchi M.D., Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Department of Experimental Immunology
Osaka University
Osaka, Japan

Jeff Bluestone, Ph.D.
Clausen Distinguished Professor of Metabolism and Endocrinology
President and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
University of California, San Francisco

David Munn, M.D.
Cancer Immunology, Inflammation and Tolerance Program
Professor of Pediatrics
Augusta University
Augusta, GA

Dmitry Gabrilovich, M.D., Ph.D.
Program Leader, Translational Tumor Immunology Program
The Wistar Institute
Philadelphia, PA

Tom Gajewski, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology and Medicine
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

Laurence Zitvogel, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Director, Tumour Immunology and Immunotherapy
Gustave Roussy Cancer Center
Villejuif, France