Tumor & Cancer Immunology and Pediatric-Oncology May 11-12, 2020 Toronto, Canada

Track 1: Tumors

A Tumor is an abnormal growth of body tissue. Tumors can be cancerous (malignant) or noncancerous (benign). Tumors are of many types such as Carcinoid Tumor, Pituitary Tumor, and Tumor lysis syndrome. In general, tumors occur when cells divide and grow excessively in the body. Normally, the body controls cell growth and division. New cells are created to replace older ones or to perform new functions. Cells that are damaged or no longer needed die to make room for healthy replacements. If the balance of cell growth and death is disturbed, a Tumor may form. Problems with the body's immune system can lead to tumors. Carcinoid tumors are of neuroendocrine origin and derived from primitive stem cells in the gut wall, but they can be seen in other organs, including the lungs, mediastinum, thymus, liver, pancreas, bronchus, ovaries, prostate, and kidneys .Carcinoid tumors have high potential for metastasis.

Track 2: Organ-Defined Cancers

Cancer can occur anywhere in the body. The most common sites of cancer among men include lung, prostate, colon, rectum, stomach and liver. And those for among women are breast, colon, rectum, lung, cervix and stomach. Cancers are often described by the body part that they originated in. However, some body parts contain multiple types of tissue, so for greater precision, cancers can additionally be classified by the type of cell that the tumor cells originated from. The type of cancer a person has needed to be known properly as different types of cancer can behave very differently and respond to different treatments.

Below are the major types of Cancer:

• Gastrointestinal Cancer
• Biliary Tract and Gallbladder cancer
• Anogenital Cancer
• Reproductive Cancer
• Cervical Cancer and Prostate Cancer
• Ovarian Cancer

Track 3: Brain Tumors

A primary brain Tumor is one that originates in the brain, and not all primary brain tumors are cancerous; benign tumors are not aggressive and normally do not spread to surrounding tissues, although they can be serious and even life threatening. Primary brain tumors emerge from the various cells that make up the brain and central nervous system and are named for the kind of cell in which they first form. The most common types of adult brain tumors are gliomas and astrocytic tumors. These tumors form from astrocytes and other types of glial cells, which are cells that help, keep nerves healthy. The second most common type of adult brain tumors are meningeal tumors. These form in the meninges, the thin layer of tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord

COVID 19 Effect on Cancer Patients:

The blood cancers often directly compromise the immune system, so those patients are probably most at risk, whereas cancers such as colon cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer do not typically cause immune suppression that is not treatment-related. COVID 19 is more effect on cancer patients due to less Immune power.

Track 4: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy

The molecular classification of Tumor is actually arrangement analysis disguised as classification. In a typical gene expression array study, the researcher will look at a cluster of tumors of a specific type. These therapies include nonspecific activation of the immune system using toll‐like receptor ligands, cytokines or immune checkpoint inhibitors, or specific treatments, like monoclonal antibody administration or vaccination, that directly target cancer cells. Cancers are not just masses of malignant cells but complex ‘rogue’ organs, to which many other cells are recruited and can be degraded by the transformed cells. Interactions between malignant and non-transformed cells create the Tumor microenvironment (TME).

Track 5: Pediatric Oncology

Pediatric Oncology is the branch of medicine which deals with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children. It is the most challenging for specialties because, despite successful treatment of many children, there is a high death rate still connected with different sorts of illness. Pediatric Oncology incorporate Pediatric Immunology, Genetics in Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Oncology Diagnosis, Therapies in Pediatric Oncology, Pediatric Nursing Care,  Pediatric Cancer Surgery, Pediatric Oncology Drugs, Pediatric Orthopedic Oncology, Pediatrics Drug Toxicity, Pediatric Cancer, Pharmacology Pediatric Cancer Care, Obesity in Pediatric oncology, Pediatric Oncology Metabolism, Neonatal and Perinatal Nursing, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Clinical Trials.  

Track 6: Oncology Nursing and Care

Oncology Nursing is a field involving practice encompasses the roles of direct caregiver, educator, consultant, administrator, and researcher. Oncology and cancer nursing extends to all care delivery settings where clients experiencing or at risk for developing cancer receive health care, education, and counselling for cancer prevention, screening and detection. It also involves appropriate screenings and other preventative practices, symptom management, care to retain as much normal functioning as possible, and supportive measures upon end of life.

Track 7: Tumor Immunogenicity

The Tumor microenvironment is an important aspect of cancer biology that contributes to Tumor initiation, Tumor progression and responses to therapy. Cells and molecules of the immune system are a fundamental component of the Tumor microenvironment. The ongoing battle between hosts and pathogens has long been of interest to evolutionary biologists. Because hosts and pathogens act as environments for each other, their intertwined struggle for existence is both continual and rapid. It is therefore little wonder that the host and pathogen genes that control infection and immunity frequently show high levels of genetic diversity and presents some of the best examples of positive selection (adaptive evolution) there are two main classifications of tumors. One is known as benign and the other as malignant. A benign Tumor is a Tumor that does not invade its surrounding tissue or spread around the body. A malignant Tumor is a Tumor that may invade its surrounding tissue or spread around the body.

Track 8:  Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is treatment that uses certain parts of a person’s immune system to fight diseases such as cancer. This can be done in a couple of ways: Own immune system stimulation, Biological therapy or biotherapy. These advances in cancer immunotherapy are the result of long-term investments in basic research on the immune system—research that continues today. Additional research is currently under way to: understand why immunotherapy is effective in some patients but not in other’s who have the same cancer, expand the use of immunotherapy to more types of cancer, increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy by combining it with other types of cancer treatment, such as targeted therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy

Track 9: Psychology in Children with Cancer

The definition of childhood cancer sometimes includes adolescents between 15–19 years old. Pediatric oncologyis the branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in children. In many developed countries the incidence is slowly increasing, as rates of childhood cancer increased by 0.6% per year between 1975 and 2002 in the United States and by 1.1% per year between 1978 and 1997 in Europe. The main subtypes of brain and central nervous system tumors in children are: astrocytoma, brain stem glioma, craniopharyngioma, desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma, ependymoma, high-grade glioma, medulloblastoma and atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor. Premature heart disease is a major long-term complication in adult survivors of childhood cancer. Adult survivors are eight times more likely to die of heart disease than other people, and more than half of children treated for cancer develop some type of cardiac abnormality, although this may be asymptomatic or too mild to qualify for a clinical diagnosis of heart disease.

Track 10: Pediatric Oncology Diagnosis

Doctors use many tests to diagnose, cancer. They do tests to learn. If cancer has spread to another part of the body from where it started, it is called metastasis. For most types of cancer, a biopsy is the only sure way for the doctor to know whether an area of the body has cancer. In addition to a physical examination, the following tests may be used to diagnose childhood cancer: Blood tests, Biopsy Bone marrow aspiration, Lumbar puncture (spinal tap), Ultrasound Computed tomography (CT or CAT) scan, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Positron emission tomography (PET) or PET-CT scan, Scans or radioisotope studies. Pediatric diagnostic radiation uses medical imaging to diagnose medical conditions in children.

Track 11:  Cancer Vaccines

Most of us know about vaccines given to healthy people to help prevent infections, such as measles and chicken pox. These vaccines use weakened or killed germs like viruses or bacteria to start an immune response in the body. Getting the immune system ready to defend against these germs helps keep people from getting infections. Most cancer vaccines work the same way, but they make the person’s immune system attack cancer cells. The goal is to help treat cancer or to help keep it from coming back after other treatments. But there are also some vaccines that may actually help prevent certain cancers. Cancer treatment vaccines are different from the vaccines that work against viruses. These vaccines try to get the immune system to mount an attack against cancer cells in the body. Instead of preventing disease, they are meant to get the immune system to attack a disease that already exists. Some cancer treatment vaccines are made up of cancer cells, parts of cells, or pure antigens. Sometimes a patient’s own immune cells are removed and exposed to these substances in the lab to create the vaccine. Once the vaccine is ready, it’s injected into the body to increase the immune response against cancer cells. Vaccines are often combined with other substances or cells called adjuvants that help boost the immune response even further.

Track 12: Antibody Therapy of Cancer

Antibody marks the cancer cell and makes it easier for the immune system to find. The monoclonal antibody drug rituximab (Rituxan) attaches to a specific protein (CD20) found only on B cells, one type of white blood cell. Certain types of lymphomas arise from these same B cells. monoclonal antibodies can also function by attenuating hyperactive growth signals neo angiogenesis. A monoclonal antibody can be conjugated to a radioactive particle that will ensure directed delivery to the cancer cell and slow and long release of the radiation, hence maximizing chances of positive outcome and minimizing non-specific damaging exposure to radiation.

Track 13: Pediatric Cancer Surgery

Surgery is one of the cornerstones of cancer treatments. The goal of surgical oncology is to physically remove as much of the tumor as safely possible.Pediatric surgeons collaborate with pediatric hematologists and oncologists to deliver compassionate care based on the latest medical advances. Pediatric surgeons use minimal access surgery (laparoscopy for abdominal surgery and thoracoscopy for chest surgery) to diagnose and treat certain types of pediatric cancer. These special techniques can, in many cases, improve our diagnostic capabilities and add to the comfort of young patients with cancer. Apart from surgery there are Chemotherapy, Radiation therapy, High-dose chemotherapy/radiation therapy and stem cell transplant, Retinoid therapy, Immunotherapy.

Track 14: Immune Checkpoint inhibitors

Immunology-based therapy is rapidly developing into an effective treatment option for a surprising range of cancers. We have learned over the last decade that powerful immunologic effector cells may be blocked by inhibitory regulatory pathways controlled by specific molecules often called "immune checkpoints." The development of a new therapeutic class of drugs that inhibit these inhibitory pathways has recently emerged as a potent strategy in oncology. Three sets of agents have emerged in clinical trials exploiting this strategy. These agents are antibody-based therapies targeting cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4), programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), and programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1). These inhibitors of immune inhibition have demonstrated extensive activity as single agents and in combinations. Clinical responses have been seen in melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, and several other tumor types.

Track 15:  Cancer Research and Prevention

The goal of the Cancer Research Program is to make significant improvements in the prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Cancer prevention is defined as active measures to decrease the risk of cancer. It will continue to translate basic research findings into clinical applications together with strategic partners, with the National Centre for Tumor Diseases (NCT) and the nationally active German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) playing key roles. The program is also developing new approaches in the fields of cancer genome and epigenome research, metabolic dysfunction, personalized radiation oncology and ion therapy, molecular imaging, neuro-oncology, individualized cancer medicine and health economics.

Track 16: Combining Cancer Immunotherapies

Targeted therapies act by blocking essential biochemical pathways or mutant proteins that are required for tumor cell growth and survival. These drugs can arrest tumor progression and induce striking regressions in molecularly defined subsets of patients. Indeed, the first small molecule targeted agent, the BCR-ABL kinase inhibitor imatinib, rapidly induced complete cytogenetic responses in 76% of chronic myelogenous leukemia patients. Further research into the underlying genetic pathways driving tumor proliferation uncovered additional oncoproteins that are critical for tumor maintenance, such as the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), BRAF, KIT, HER (also known as neu and ERBB) and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK). Similar to imatinib, small molecule inhibitors of these kinases have effectuated impressive tumor responses in selected patients, although regressions are commonly followed by the development of progressive disease due to the emergence of drug-resistant variants. Resistance usually involves secondary mutations within the targeted protein or compensatory changes within the targeted pathway that bypass the drug-mediated inhibition. Accordingly, targeted therapies may elicit dramatic tumor regressions, but persistence is generally short-lived, limiting the overall clinical benefit.

Track 17: Tumor immunotherapy research

Immunotherapy is an innovative treatment approach that empowers the human immune system to overcome cancer and other debilitating diseases. The T-cell therapies are the most radical of several new approaches that recruit the immune system to attack cancers. The treatments work by removing molecular brakes that normally keep the body’s T cells from seeing cancer as an enemy, and they have helped demonstrate that the immune system is capable of destroying cancer. Immunotherapy may help boost the body’s immune response. This approach uses drugs/agents to trigger or stimulate the immune system to react to the invader – in this case, the cancer cells. This is similar to how a cold virus would stimulate your immune system.

Track 18: Cancer Micro and Immuno environment

Interactions between malignant and non-transformed cells create the Tumor microenvironment (TME). The non-malignant cells of the TME have a dynamic and often tumor-promoting function at all stages of carcinogenesis .Intercellular communication is driven by a complex and dynamic network of cytokines, chemokine’s, growth factors, and inflammatory and matrix remodeling enzymes against a background of major perturbations to the physical and chemical properties of the tissue. The evolution, structure and activities of the cells in the TME have many parallels with the processes of wound healing and inflammation, but cells such as macrophages are also found in cancers that have no known association with chronic inflammatory conditions. 

Track 19: Tumor markers and drug targeting

Tumor markers are substances that are produced by cancer or by other cells of the body in response to cancer or certain benign (noncancerous) conditions. Most tumor markers are made by normal cells as well as by cancer cells; however, they are produced at much higher levels in cancerous conditions. These substances can be found in the blood, urine, stool, tumor tissue, or other tissues or bodily fluids of some patients with cancer. Most tumor markers are proteins. Thus far, more than 20 different tumor markers have been characterized and are in clinical use. Some are associated with only one type of cancer, whereas others are associated with two or more cancer types. There is no “universal” tumor marker that can detect any type of cancer. Among various approaches to specifically target drug-loaded carrier systems to required pathological sites in the body, two seem to be most advanced – passive (EPR effect-mediated) targeting, based on the longevity of the pharmaceutical carrier in the blood and its accumulation in pathological sites with compromised vasculature, and active targeting, based on the attachment of specific ligands to the surface of pharmaceutical carriers to recognize and bind pathological cells. 

Track 20: Radiology in Pediatric Oncology

There square measure several imaging interventions necessary for medical specialty medicine patients, range of interventions as well as transcutaneous diagnostic test for solid tumour and hematological malignancy of complications of immunological disorder similar to invasive respiratory organ aspergillosis. Tumor imaging embody tumor detection, tumor characterization and medical diagnosis, imaging-guided diagnostic test, analysis of tumour extent and staging, assessment of treatment responses, and police work for residual tumour or tumour return in children. In clinical observe, numerous mixtures of imaging modalities square measure wont come through these goals. Recently introduced tumor imaging ways, similar to diffusion MRI, intromission MRI, whole-body MRI, and antilepton emission pictorial representation (PET-CT), have shown promising results.

Track 21: Pediatrics Drug Toxicity

Toxic exposures occur frequently in children throughout the world. Common patterns of pediatric poisoning consist of exploratory ingestions in children younger than six years of age and intentional ingestions and recreational drug use in older children and adolescents. Drug treatment in children differs from that in adults, most obviously because it is usually based on weight or surface area. Doses (and dosing intervals) differ because of age-related variations in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (see Pharmacokinetics in Children). A child cannot safely receive an adult drug dose, nor can it be assumed that a child’s dose is proportional to an adult’s dose (i.e, that a 7-kg child requires 1/10 the dose of a 70-kg adult).  Considering the relatively high percentage of toxic exposures that involve drugs, it is fortunate that only a few medications are truly life-threatening to a young child who ingests only one or two pills or one to two teaspoon-sized swallows. None of the medications listed in Table 2 will injure every exposed child.

Track 22: Cancer Clinical Trials

To developing new methods to prevent, detect, and treat cancer. It is through clinical trials that researchers can determine whether new treatments are safe and effective and work better than current treatments. Cancer clinical trials have led to scientific advances that have increased doctors' understanding of how and why tumor’s develop and grow. This knowledge has helped doctors make progress in preventing cancer, diagnosing cancer, slowing or stopping the development of cancer, and finding cancers that have come back after treatment.

Track 23: Tumor biology and Carcinogenesis

Tumors grow in a series of steps. The first step is hyperplasia, meaning that there are too many cells resulting from uncontrolled cell division. These cells appear normal, but changes have occurred that result in some loss of control of growth. The second step is dysplasia, resulting from further growth, accompanied by abnormal changes to the cells. The third step requires additional changes, which result in cells that are even more abnormal and can now spread over a wider area of tissue.  Tumorigenesis depends on carcinogenesis, but not vice versa, and when we focus on carcinogenesis, our scope rests predominantly with mutation or epimutation acquisition, while when we focus on tumorigenesis, our scope is on the multistep progress of mutated cells in tumor development. 

Track 24: Cancer Biomarkers

In cancer research and medicine, biomarkers are used in three primary ways:

• To help diagnose conditions, as in the case of identifying early stage cancers (Diagnostic)
• To forecast how aggressive a condition is, as in the case of determining a patient's ability to fare in the absence of treatment (Prognostic)
• To predict how well a patient will respond to treatment (Predictive)

Track 25: Immuno-Oncology studies

The immune system is the body’s natural defence system. It is a collection of organs, cells and special molecules that helps protect you from infections, cancer and other diseases. Immuno-oncology therapies activate our immune system, making it able to recognise cancer cells and destroy them. Breast cancer is one of the major cancer types for which new immune-based cancer treatments are currently in development. Lung cancer surgery carries risks, including bleeding and infection. Clinical trials are studies of experimental lung cancer treatments. Adult central nervous system tumor is a disease in which abnormal cells form in the tissues of the brain and/or spinal cord. A tumor that starts in another part of the body and spreads to the brain is called a metastatic brain tumor. There are different types of brain and spinal cord tumors such as Astrocytic Tumors, Oligodendroglial Tumors, Mixed Gliomas, Ependymal Tumors, Medulloblastomas, Pineal Parenchymal Tumors, Meningeal Tumors, Germ Cell Tumors, Craniopharyngiom. Advances in Immuno-oncology have given oncologists and their patients reason to be encouraged—the launch of immune checkpoint inhibitors and development of other immunotherapy assets for the treatment of several difficult-to-treat diseases, including metastatic melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, represents great progress. 

Track 26: Multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs. Multiple myeloma causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow, where they crowd out healthy blood cells. Normal plasma cells are found in the bone marrow and are an important part of the immune system. The immune system is made up of several types of cells that work together to fight infections and other diseases. Lymphocytes (lymph cells) are one of the main types of white blood cells in the immune system and include T cells and B cells. Lymphocytes are in many areas of the body, such as lymph nodes, the bone marrow, the intestines, and the bloodstream.

Track 27: Immunotherapy Monitoring

The development of methods to propagate immune T-cells, and in particular tumor specific T-cells from the patients with cancer, lead to an important breakthrough; the identification of MAGE-1,a melanoma-specific antigen that stimulates human T-cells in-vitro. With antigen specific T-cells as a reagents, it was possible to clone the MAGE-1 studies showed that the human immune system can respond tumor antigens, and the findings stimulated a productive effort to discover tumor antigens. The result is a long and still-growing list of antigens from a variety of tumor that could serve a variety of tumor’s that could serve as targets for treatment.

Track 28: Radiology and Imaging in Cancer

Radiology is the science that utilizations restorative imaging to analyse and here and there likewise treat maladies inside the body. An assortment of imaging systems, for example, X-ray, radiography, ultrasound, registered tomography (CT), atomic pharmaceutical including positron discharge tomography (PET), and attractive reverberation imaging (MRI) are utilized to analyse or potentially treat infections. Medical imaging seeks to reveal internal structures hidden by the skin and bones, as well as to diagnose and treat disease.  Interventional radiology is the execution of (ordinarily negligibly intrusive) therapeutic methodology with the direction of imaging  innovations.

Track 29: Engineered T-Cell Therapy

Engineered T cells are the result of turning a therapeutic process into a product capable of overcoming checkpoint inhibition, and are the future of adoptive immunotherapy. Cytokine release syndrome,” a storm of molecules generated as the cells fights the cancer. Instead of an antibody, single-chain target domain, he used a human cytokine, IL-13, with a mutation in the sequence that gave high affinity for IL-13 receptor α2. These cells were infused intra cranially, establishing the safety of intracranial administration with some antitumor responses.

Track 30: Novel Approaches in Cancer & Tumor

Immunotherapy encompasses several different treatment approaches, each of which has a distinct mechanism of action, and all of which are designed to boost or restore immune function in some manner.  This includes: Monoclonal antibodies, Immune checkpoint inhibitors, Therapeutic Cancer vaccines, cytokines, and other non-specific immunotherapies.

Track 31: Drug Discovery and Development in Cancer Research

Drug discovery is a process where the cure for the disease is found. This is a multistep process which involves a great amount of investment in terms of time and finance. Cancer is believed not be cured any drugs. However, there are many instances where people have come out of this disease successfully, thanks to the researchers who have developed some efficient molecules which can suppress and kill the tumor cells.

As a first step, the cause of the disease is identified. Here it might be a molecule or an Organism. Once the cause is identified, a hypothesis for the target molecules are drawn and certain molecule groups are chosen to encounter the target molecule/Organism. In the modern method, these molecules are chosen by algorithms and often selected from the databases based upon their structures and composition. Later these are subjected to the target molecule in silico models. Many of the molecules lose the race here and few make it to the next level of testing where the selected models are subjected to animal models. Once these molecules are proven to be safe and efficient in the animal models, they are approved to test on the human. After rigor testing and monitoring, a suitable molecule with all ideal characteristics is approved by the governing body and released into the market.

Based on IMS statistics, antineoplastic agents have always been the leader of global pharmaceutical market since 2007. Global Cancer Immunotherapy Market is accounted for $55,471 million in 2018, and is estimated to reach $117,114 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 14.5% during the analysis period (2016-2022). Cancer immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that boosts the human bodys natural immune system to fight against the cancer cells. This therapy is provided to cancer patients to stop the spread of cancer, to slow down the growth of cancer cells, and to improve the natural immunity for destroying the cancer cells.