5th European Conference on Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer - 20-21 September 2005, Athens, Greece

'Progress In Vaccination Against Cancer' (PIVAC) examines the latest advances in tumour immunology and their clinical applications. Previous conferences were held in Blaubeuren, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Nottingham and Freudenstadt-Lauterbad in the Black Forest. The residential format of these conferences encourages interactions between participants and permits a focussed discussion on the new data and concepts. The main topic of the 5th European PIVAC was the induction and maintenance of an active immune memory against cancer. The results of clinical trials with different cancer vaccines were presented. The correlations between tumour regression and immune response, the role of innate and specific immunity, and ways of enhancing these two arms of the antitumour response were explored. Particular attention was devoted to the presence and function of regulatory T cells as a prelude to improving the design of these trials and understanding why they have produced unimpressive results. A consensus was reached on the need to combine vaccination with strategies for suppressing regulatory T cell function. The immune-escape mechanisms of tumours and the emerging importance of some newly discovered mutations were also fully discussed.