The Next Chapter of <i>Cancer Immunology Research</i>

We are honored to serve as the new Editors-in-Chief of Cancer Immunology Research (CIR) with the opportunity to start a new chapter to guide the journal into the next frontiers of cancer immunotherapy research with a positive impact for patients. We are physician-scientists who have worked for decades studying how the immune system can be harnessed to treat cancer and conducting clinical trials to develop new immunotherapies that have shown unprecedented results in patients with cancer. These experiences shape our vision for the journal to become the leading publication for basic, translational, and clinical research in cancer immunology and immunotherapy.Through the vision of the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Glenn Dranoff, which was then advanced to meet the evolving science by Editors-in-Chief Robert D. Schreiber and Philip D. Greenberg, CIR has gained a leadership position among cancer immunotherapy journals. In fact, CIR has become one of the highest Impact Factor publications in the field of cancer immunology and immunotherapy. It has published diverse articles that have expanded our knowledge of how the immune system interacts with cancer and how it can be exploited to treat patients. We intend to build on this important legacy by actively pursuing additional areas of interest. Our vision for the journal can be summarized in the following points:Expand the clinical content, including immuno-oncology clinical trials, clinical research defining biomarkers, immune mechanisms in patient samples, and understanding resistance to cancer immunotherapies;Build on our interest in studies using computational science and systems immunology, as well as those reporting technological developments to provide new insights into cancer immunology;Become more inclusive of biomedical engineering studies as they apply to cancer immunology and immunotherapy; andWelcome voices from across the globe and across disciplines to broaden access to the benefits of cancer immunotherapies for all patients with cancer.Cancer immunology is now a driving force in oncology. Since the inaugural issue of CIR in 2013, the FDA has approved 14 immune checkpoint blockade agents, nine adoptive T-cell transfer therapies, and nine bispecific and T cell–engager therapeutics. This has been driven by an ever-increasing number of immunotherapy clinical trials, which we welcome for submission to CIR. Immune checkpoint–blocking antibodies and adoptive T-cell transfer therapies have become standard-of-care treatments for multiple cancers and are among the most prescribed cancer drugs in the world. However, there is a need for further progress. The science has continued to advance, bringing new treatment strategies to the clinic, including next-generation cancer vaccines, new approaches to activate the immune system based on a refined understanding of the immune regulatory pathways and the structure of the receptors, the generation of multiple gene edits in T-cell therapies to improve their antitumor activity and control, the exciting advent of in vivo T-cell gene engineering, and the development of multifunctional antibody–drug conjugates and T-cell engagers that are providing new treatment options for patients who were not benefiting from the prior generation of immuno-oncology agents. With improved cancer immunology treatments, there is also a need to better understand mechanisms of response and resistance, both primary and after transient clinical responses. In addition, there are over 200 cancer types based on genetic and tumor microenvironment signals that subtype any given organ-derived cancer. This journal is poised to publish key studies that report both the analysis of patient-derived samples and preclinical models that study the causality of the events.It is an unprecedented time in science when multiple technologies are allowing sample analyses at previously unachievable levels. We have gone from studying one gene at a time in bulk samples to studying all genes in every single cell. The amount of knowledge derived from modern technologies provides the promise of being able to study the immune system with tools that can encompass and unravel all its complexity. It will require continued advances in computational biology, mathematical modeling, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, which will be a new focus of the journal, and we highly encourage submissions in this area.To achieve the goals of the new chapter for CIR, we have assembled an outstanding group of senior editors who are experts in all these fields. They will provide guidance to select the work that is most impactful and that advances the field toward next-generation immunotherapies in the clinic. The focus on patient impact requires that at each stage of cancer immunology research, authors and reviewers maintain very high standards for scientific rigor, reproducibility of the findings, and the interpretation of their relevance to patients with cancer. The description of data interpretation and study conclusions needs to align with the strength of the findings and their reproducibility in different model systems.In conclusion, we are excited to invite authors, reviewers, editors, and readers to join us in this next chapter to shape CIR as the journal that not only reflects the state of the science but also helps define its future.E.M. Jaffee reports personal fees from Abmeta, Adventris, HDT Bio, Dragonfly, Mestag, STIMIT, NeoTX, and NEUVOGEN; grants from Lustgarten and Genentech; and other support from Break Through Cancer and Bristol Myers Squibb outside the submitted work. A. Ribas reports personal fees from Amgen, Merck, Appia, Arcus, Compugen, Larkspur, Lutris, Lyell, MapKure, Merus, Sastra, Synthekine, Tango, Nextech, Apricity, Dispatch, and Highlight outside the submitted work and that he has a patent for Arsenal Bio licensed.