Immunologic Monitoring Laboratory (IML), University of Washington

We now know that human tumors are immunogenic and have identified a variety of proteins that act as tumor antigens, i.e. stimulate an immune response. We have a more detailed understanding of T-cell-antigen recognition and the character of peptide fragments presented in MHC molecules. Finally, mechanisms of tumor immune escape are much better understood, such as the role tolerance plays in dampening the tumor specific immune response and the importance of appropriate antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, in initial immune stimulation. Reported trials of cancer immunotherapy, including vaccines, are demonstrating the ability to elicit detectable tumor specific immunity in cancer patients. There are no standard immunologic monitoring methods that will allow comparison of immune based clinical strategies between labs or will even allow accurate assessment of the immunogenicity of a particular approach. Standardization and development of reproducible and clinical grade immunologic assays to determine the magnitude of tumor specific immune responses generated in the context of clinical trials of cancer immunotherapy is an area of research in the TVG.