What We Want to achieve

The foundation of our research is on our early successes in harnessing the immune system to treat cancer. Previously considered incurable, many cases of skin cancers have been successfully treated by harnessing the immune system. In the first round of these immunotherapies — anti-CTLA-4 (ipilimumab/tremelimumab) and anti-PD-1 (nivolumab/pembrolizumab) — between 25% and 40% of patients are showing objective responses including stabilization and complete remission. Those who responded are living much longer than with any other potential treatments. But only a portion of patients' immune systems respond to these treatments. Why not all others?

We believe that there are additional immune barriers to overcome; barriers whose presence can be detected within a tumor biopsy. Based on our successful studies, we want to be able to identify people who will respond to anti-CTLA-4, anti-PD-1, or other therapies prior to treatment, and then precisely choose how to treat the cancer. Similarly, we believe that classifying cancers by immunopathology will assist us in preventing recurrence. In sum, getting more tumor biopsies like yours into this exploratory pipeline will help us accelerate cures across all cancer types. We recognize that sometimes having a biopsy takes a conscious decision on your part, and we sincerely thank you for joining our effort to eradicate cancer.