Cancer Immunity 3 Suppl 1:1 (2003) - COMMENTARY

It is my great pleasure to greet you on the occasion of this tenth year since the initiation of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) International Immunotherapy Symposium series. Each year we celebrate advances in the two main objectives of the field of tumor immunology the development of effective cancer vaccines and the development of antibody-based cancer therapies. This year we have three reasons to celebrate. The first is the formation of a partnership between the CRI and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), focusing the joint strengths of these two great institutions on developing effective cancer immunotherapies. The initial manifestation of this partnership is the creation of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative (CVC), a consortium of basic researchers and clinical investigators at six New York institutions carrying out early phase clinical trials aimed at establishing principles of effective immunization with cancer antigens. The inauguration of the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative represents the second development that we are celebrating at this meeting.