Program 7 : Immunology

Program 7 : Immunology

STRENGTHS IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS

Cancer Care

  • Immunotherapy is perfectly integrated into clinical care in all ad-hoc disciplines (thoracic oncology, dermatology, urology, medical oncology, hematology, pediatrics), including the most recent strategies such as CAR-T cells (detailed more precisely in a specific program), combination immunotherapies, and bispecific antibodies.
  • State-of-the art clinical care by expert physicians and surgeons.
  • Dedicated onco-dermatology and thoracic oncology departments, strong CAR-T cell task force
  • Large number of patients treated with immunotherapy, especially in thoracic oncology, dermatology, and hematology (pediatric and adult), hence a vast experience in a wide range of clinical presentations and disease entities.
  • Interdisciplinary management of toxicities through a university hospital transversal group.

Research

1. Clinical Research
  • Very strong involvement in clinical trials on immunotherapies at all stages of clinical development (phases I to IV).
  • Early phase trials require a specific environment in terms of trial management and safety: seven ongoing or recent phase I or II trials in thoracic oncology (four academic), two in urology, eight in pediatrics (two academic), and >20 in dermatology.
  • Phase III trials are critical to drug clinical approval: nine ongoing or recent phase III trials in thoracic oncology (three academic), four in urology, three in pediatrics (two academic), and eight in dermatology.
  • Université de Paris physicians are frequently global coordinators or national principal investigators of trials.
  • Clinical research programs are funded by competitive national grants (PHRC, INCa), as well as industrial partnerships.
2. Translational/basic Research
  • Large number of translational research studies connected to clinical samples and clinical trials.
  • Mostly a collaborative role for thoracic oncology, urology, hematology, and pediatrics.
  • Lead investigator role for dermatology and pathology: studies with potential clinical impact.
  • Outstanding implication of dermatology, hematology, and thoracic oncology in translational research studies based on large patient cohorts (PREDIMEL, PREDICARTe) that address issues with a therapeutic, prognostic, or predictive impact, and look for new mechanisms of action for innovative drugs.
  • Strong local support for immune monitoring in various immunotherapy contexts (lead investigator for CAR-T cells).
  • These studies could benefit from large-scale and high-throughput technologies, as well as multiplex imaging systems.
  • Basic research in immuno-oncology could be strengthened.
3. Research/clinics integration
  • Strong connection between research and clinics in hematology, thoracic oncology, and dermatology.
  • Important role of clinical and sample cohorts, such as MELBASE (melanoma) or Immunotarget (lung cancer), which enable a large number of collaborative and lead investigator studies connected to patient samples and data.
  • Good level of national and international collaboration.
4. Transversal working groups/staff meetings
  • All departments have very well integrated interdisciplinary working groups and meetings in order to optimize patient care and treatment decision.
  • Thoracic oncology, pediatrics, and dermatology have set up molecular tumor boards.
5. Technological platforms
  • Proper use of platforms for molecular biomarkers (TMB, PD-L1).
  • Good support from pathology, genetics, and immunology laboratories.
  • Lack of cutting-edge technologies.
6. Biobanking and databases
  • Dermatology has set up leading prospective cohorts with a structured biobanking and data management.
  • Thoracic oncology has a lung cancer biobank with a lung cancer-on-chip technology aimed to assess autologous cancer micro-environments and the effect of immuno-oncology drugs on such ex-vivo platforms.
  • Hemato-oncology has set up prospective biobanking and data management for patients receiving CAR-T cells (BIOCART).
  • It would be important to mutualize resources and expertise to provide broader support for biobanking and clinical/biological databases.

Education

Training:
  • Strong involvement in local, regional, and national training programs in immunotherapy and immune monitoring.

PROGRAM LEADERS

Pr Sophie CAILLAT-ZUCMAN is Professor of Immunology at University of Paris, head of the Immunology Laboratory at Saint-Louis Hospital, and director of the team “Immune responses in the immunocompromised host” at INSERM U976. This gives her a key role in projects at the interface between basic and clinical research in patients receiving immune therapies (hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, CAR-T cells). She is coordinator of multipartner projects on the development of universal CAR-T cells and on identification of predictive markers of CAR-T cell efficacy (PREDICARTe).

Pr Vassili SOUMELIS