Registration is now open for the 2017 Immunotherapy Patient Summit Series, a set of free half-day events in five U.S. cities focusing on immunotherapy and clinical trials, says the Cancer Research Institute (CRI).
CRI held its first Immunotherapy Patient Summit last September in New York. Based on its success, CRI returns to New York on Sept. 23 and will adding four cities to the list: San Francisco on July 8; Chicago on Aug. 5; Houston on Oct. 21, and Tampa on Dec. 9.
CRI will livestream its New York event to reach a national and global audience.
The Immunotherapy Patient Summit Series — sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Genentech and Regeneron — aims to bring together cancer patients, caregivers, scientists and clinicians to discuss the latest research in cancer immunotherapy as well as offer information on clinical trials and cancer-specific breakout sessions.
Cancer patients will also meet with clinical trial navigators who can help connect them to immunotherapy trials for which they might be eligible. At all five events, patients will be able to interact with scientists and clinicians conducting immuno-oncology research, as well as with other key cancer specialists.
The summit series will start immediately after Cancer Immunotherapy Month, a global awareness campaign that CRI led in June. The campaign began five years ago to call the public’s attention to promising breakthroughs in cancer immunotherapy and the need to fund more research to eventually bring these findings as potential new treatment options for patients.
“CRI has dedicated more than six decades to advancing the science of immunotherapy with the ultimate goal of harnessing our immune system’s potential to cure all cancers, and we have reached a critical point where patients are playing an even greater role in the success of these efforts,” Jill O’Donnell-Tormey, the group’s CEO and director of scientific affairs, said in a press release. “We are proud to expand our patient focus and, alongside our scientist and donor communities, facilitate patient knowledge of immunotherapy and clinical trials that will help lead to breakthroughs in cancer care.”
The New York-based CRI, established in 1953, has invested $344 million to support research conducted by immunologists at the world’s leading medical centers and universities.
