Cancer immunotherapy provides unprecedented long-term antitumor activity in some patients, however the majority of patients with advanced cancers only experience short-term remission. To achieve better outcomes for everyone will require a mechanistic understanding of response, and resistance, to these therapies, including immune inhibitory checkpoint blockade and T-cell engineering. These insights will provide rationale for how to best combine these therapeutic approaches for sustained clinical success.

In this virtual meeting we will tackle many of these unanswered questions in the field, including:

• How do cancers adapt and resist T cell attack?
• Can we better understand the tumor microenvironment to pave the way for new approaches to immunotherapy?
• What is the rationale behind immune-oncology (IO) combinations in clinical testing?

The program highlights novel methodologies, data-analysis techniques, and tools to integrate high throughput and patient-derived sample data, revealing powerful new approaches to understand both genetic and adaptive resistance mechanisms, and ways to overcome them. The largest human experiment to date is currently underway, testing over 1,000 agents and combinations; examining preliminary results will be key to refining our approaches, and understanding of immunity in patients with cancer.

Overall, participants will gain a more comprehensive understanding of tumor immunology, and how to leverage this knowledge to outsmart tumors and achieve lasting remission in patients. In addition, the virtual event provides a platform for trainees, junior researchers, and rising stars in the field to share promising new directions that will progress the field forward, towards new and innovative breakthroughs.

Keystone Symposia conferences provide unique opportunities for trainees and junior researchers to present their work to global audiences and field leaders. The eSymposia platform continues this strong tradition of providing these critical career-development and advancement experiences for the next-generation, incorporating short talks and ePoster sessions to highlight rising stars in the field.