Natural and therapeutically induced immune responses to cancer can prevent and/or facilitate cancer development/outgrowth. New cancer immunotherapies have shown remarkable capacities to induce durable responses in patients with advanced forms of cancer (such as stage IV melanoma) that are generally resistant to any other types of cancer therapy. These findings have significantly changed the thinking about cancer treatment and about using the immune system as an important and effective weapon against cancer.

A centralized immune monitoring facility was launched in 2014 to facilitate translation of basic immune system research findings into the cancer immunotherapy arena, to support ongoing and new clinical cancer immunotherapy trials and to develop novel mechanistic insights into human immune system-cancer interactions. IML provides the means to monitor developing immune responses to new therapies in animal models of cancer treatment; to elucidate novel treatment strategies; or develop unique processes to evaluate treatment outcomes in translational studies. This shared resource provides the infrastructure and expertise to advance cancer immunotherapy outcomes.