"Immunotherapy is revolutionizing cancer treatment," emphasizes Dr. Ignacio Melero, a specialist in Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and the research center Médica Aplicada (CIMA), both entities integrated in the Instituto de research Sanitaria de Navarra (IDISNA). In addition, the CIMA is part of the Technological Corporation ADITech.

Dr. Melero is the coordinator of the International Symposium on Immunotherapy: "Immunostimulatory monoclonal antibodies and immunomodulation: reaping the harvest at last" which will bring together the world's leading scientific experts from Sunday, October 18 to Tuesday, October 20: 22 speakers who will analyze and discuss the latest advances in this line of cancer treatment.

Together with Dr. Melero, Dr. Juan José Lasarte, director of the Immunology and Immunotherapy Program of CIMA, has co-organized a symposium between clinical immunologists, oncologists, hematologists and other specialists in the research on cancer, top experts at international level. The congress has the partnership and sponsorship of the Ramón Areces Foundation and is funded in part by the Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness with reference letter SAF2015-63007-CIN, among other grants.

The symposium, which will be held at the Museum of the University of Navarra, will be attended by 350 participants from a total of 8 countries. "The use of immunotherapy in the fight against cancer is one of the most important events to have taken place in many years," says specialist Ignacio Melero.

Dr. Melero supports his resounding affirmation in the latest results obtained in clinical trials carried out at the Clínica and the CIMA and other international centers, especially in patients with metastatic melanoma, a disease in which immunotherapy has obtained its best results to date. According to the latest scientific evidence,"more than 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with a given immunotherapy drug (monoclonal antibody) are still alive and without worsening of the disease two years after the start of treatment," says the expert. This is a particularly relevant advance, since until now patients with this disease did not live more than a few months.

Immunotherapy consists of the use of pharmacological treatments that stimulate the patient's immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells more effectively.

There are already other types of tumor in which this therapeutic line is already achieving good results. "After melanoma, we can highlight non-small cell lung cancer, which has a 15-30% survival rate 18 months after starting immunotherapy," explains Dr. José Luis Pérez Gracia, oncologist and co director of the Central Unit for Clinical Trials at Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

It is known," the specialist points out, "that immunotherapy improves the results in different types of cancer". However, there are still gaps as to why it works in some patients but not in others. And this is one of the questions that experts will submit to analysis and discussion.

In this line, the Immunology and Immunotherapy Program of CIMA, has been working for years on the development of several lines of research around immunotherapy. "Our laboratories do research in three main lines," says Dr. Juan José Lasarte of CIMA, "in the development of vaccines, immunomodulation and adoptive cell therapy."

The preclinical research carried out at CIMA develops "molecules that block the immune system's brake in the presence of a tumor cell. The development and application of these compounds can awaken the antitumor immune response in the cancer patient," says immunology specialist Dr. Juan José Lasarte.