Combinations strategies involving checkpoint immunotherapies were approved as first-line options in two cancer types and showed promise in clinical trials for several hard-to-treat cancers. Important advances were also made with respect to immune-related biomarkers, cellular immunotherapies, and personalized vaccines.
Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D., deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, is focusing her research on the development of new vaccine approaches that overcome immune tolerance to cancer. In a webinar from the Cancer Research Institute, Jaffee talked about immunotherapy breakthroughs from the past year and discusses the field’s ongoing efforts to overcome the challenges ahead and enable immunotherapy to benefit even more people with cancer.
At Johns Hopkins, Jaffee is also the associate director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli professor of oncology, co-director of gastrointestinal cancer and diseases program, and co-director of the Skip Viragh Center for Pancreas Cancer Clinical Research and Patient Care.