Cancer immunity and immunotherapy beyond COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all of us to change priorities and perspectives. The reaction of the scientific community has been focused, fast and incredibly effective. It is difficult to recall in the history of mankind such a cohesion of intents and efforts among countries in defeating a new threat to humanity. We have learned that joining forces is the winning strategy against any threat, cancer included. However, SARS-CoV-2 only partially distracted the basic, translational, and clinical research in cancer. Inspired by this overwhelming experience and eager to share the last groundbreaking discoveries in cancer immunology and immunotherapy with the scientific community and for the benefit of cancer patients, the Italian Network for the Biotherapy of Cancer (NIBT) organized the XIX NIBIT Meeting 2021, whose main theme was “Cancer immunity and immunotherapy beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.” The meeting rolled out in the web on October 14–15, 2021, and gathered top clinicians and scientists to discuss about novel concepts in cancer immunology, such as trained immunity and cancer & immune metabolism. Almost 200 delegates were updated on cutting-hedge therapies in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors including melanoma, lung, breast, prostate, head and neck and several others. Each session hosted a 20’ open discussion animated by experts in the field. There was plenty of space for oral communications from the youngest investigators. Three poster sessions in the morning allowed 20 investigators to orally present their most recent and exciting findings (Supplementary Fig. S1). Thus, NIBIT was proud to meet the educational needs of its members and of young investigators committed to cancer immunotherapy.