An open invitation to the cancer immunology community. (2012)

With this edition of Cancer Immunity, we rededicate ourselves to this journal and its guiding principles with fresh vigor and enthusiasm. The open access journal has been in existence since 2001 when Lloyd Old established it as the first (and, thus far, the only) journal that (a) was devoted to all aspects of cancer immunology, (b) was available free of charge, (c) did not levy publication charges, and (d) respected authors’ copyright on their work. A number of independent motivations led Dr. Old to establish this journal—he recognized far earlier than others in the field that, more than other areas of biology, cancer immunology would come to lie at the intersection of a bewildering array of disciplines and perspectives: intellectual, technical, logistical, clinical, regulatory, governmental, commercial, and public. He believed that the existing journals of immunology did not carry this broad vision, and he wanted Cancer Immunity to be a venue that would do so with rigorous standards. In addition, he liked the idea of a journal that would disseminate all types of materials that cancer immunologists discover, create, use, or broadcast. Thus, he wanted Cancer Immunity to publish not only original research papers and timely reviews, but also opinions on papers, hypotheses, reflections, databases, case reports, conference presentations, and job openings.


This inaugural relaunch of Cancer Immunity celebrates a number of features: 


It celebrates the life of Lloyd Old, who passed away in November 2011. In this issue, twelve colleagues of Dr. Old (Toshitada Takahashi and Hiroshi Shiku, Elizabeth [“Betsy”] Carswell-Richards and Barbara Williamson, Pramod Srivastava, Elke Jager and Alexander Knuth, Michael Pfreundschuh, Yao-Tseng Chen, Gerd Ritter, and Jill O’Donnell-Tormey and Edward A. McDermott Jr.) offer their reflections on their work with him. Collectively, these writings not only are a tribute to Lloyd Old, but they also put in scientific and personal context some of the major discoveries in cancer immunology.


Cancer Immunity begins a series of scientific commentaries on a range of topics. This inaugural issue publishes commentaries on antibodies in cancer treatment. This section, which includes a special introduction by Jean-Pierre Mach, highlighting Lloyd Old’s role in this field, features commentaries from Gert Riethmuller, Falk Nimmerjahn and Jeffrey Ravetch, and Andrew Scott, James Allison, and Jedd Wolchok on the current developments, emerging issues, and importance of antibodies in cancer immunology and immunotherapy.


Cancer Immunity honors Lloyd Old’s memory by housing in an online tribute the thoughts and reflections of his many colleagues, collaborators, trainees, and friends on his work and impact, as both a scientist and a person. The memorial houses a collection of items, including obituaries published to date, major books and articles in which he was featured, his research papers, and other materials. We invite and encourage you to visit this special tribute on Cancer Immunity’s website, and to e-mail your thoughts and reflections to gro.ytinummirecnac@rotide to be posted on the site’s guestbook. Whether short or long, scientific or personal, these reflections will serve as a resource for the entire community and for the public at large about the extraordinary influence of this one man and his enduring legacy.


Cancer Immunity has undergone organizational changes. Originally sponsored by the Academy of Cancer Immunology and based in Lausanne, Switzerland, the editorial office has transferred to New York, and Cancer Immunity is now the official journal of the Cancer Research Institute. It has a new editorial board whose expertise spans the entire range of issues relevant to cancer immunology, and it has a new executive staff including assistant editor Michelle Liew.


Concurrent with this special inaugural relaunch issue, Cancer Immunity has a redesigned website, supported by a streamlined journal management system that allows authors to submit manuscripts and track their status online. This automated management of content will speed the communication process and will allow readers to comment on Cancer Immunity’s published articles, further encouraging open dialogue in scientific inquiry.


In addition to original research papers, reviews, and reflections, Cancer Immunity now broadens the types of content to include news highlights of current literature, podcasts and presentations from conferences, and a jobs board for studentships, fellowships, and laboratory technician and faculty positions.


Cancer Immunity continues to be indexed in all major databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Elsevier’s Scopus, among others.




Today, there is tremendous momentum in cancer immunology, and recent developments in the field of active cancer immunotherapy foreshadow important breakthroughs. These results support the bold prediction that cancer immunology and cancer immunotherapy will in the next decades dominate both cancer research and cancer therapy.

Remaining true to Dr. Old’s vision, Cancer Immunity continues to be devoted to all aspects of cancer immunology (from basic discoveries to late-stage clinical studies, from regulatory issues to statistical considerations in clinical trial design). Papers dealing with solid or hematological malignancies, cancer immunosuppressive mechanisms, inflammation and epigenetic control of inflammatory processes, cross-talk between innate and adaptive immune responses, optimization of vaccination strategies, and other topics of relevance to the cancer immunology community or subsets thereof are welcomed. In addition, we strongly encourage papers looking at aspects of combined immunological and conventional anti-cancer therapies, as it is becoming clear that such combinatorial therapeutic strategies are likely to dominate future anti-cancer therapies.

By opting to publish your article in Cancer Immunity, you will benefit from the prestige and international visibility associated with a journal of Lloyd Old and of the Cancer Research Institute, from constructive peer review, and from rapid publication. Most notably, as an open access journal, Cancer Immunity authors do not pay a publication fee, do retain copyright to their own work, and can expect their publications to be deposited in PubMed Central on their behalf.


Additionally, as a scholarly forum committed to featuring high-quality and diverse contributions from leading investigators in a free and accessible format, Cancer Immunity aims to serve as the interactive collaborative bridge between tumor immunologists and members of the public alike. We invite you to use this journal in any and every which way you should choose, such as by: 


submitting your original research papers, reviews, commentaries, and reflections for publication


browsing our archives and collected papers on original case reports, clinical trials, reviews focusing on the prognostic significance of TILs in human cancers, and on papers touching on various aspects of the NY-ESO-1 tumor antigen


posting your comments on papers published in Cancer Immunity


reviewing or providing commentary on papers published elsewhere that may be of interest to the cancer immunology community


visiting our website to utilize the array of databases available (Peptide Epitope Database, CT Gene Database, SEREX Review, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Tetramer Collection)


utilizing the links to other external resources such as: 

general information on clinical trials, funding agencies, and cancer immunology societies and associations


upcoming conferences and reports from previously held meetings


current news and blogs


more than 40 freely available databases and gene sequence analysis web tools in proteasomal cleavage, TAP binding, MHC-peptide binding, antigenic peptides, CTL epitopes, and tumor antigens





posting or browsing for positions at any level (research technican, graduate students, fellows, faculty)




We warmly welcome your participation in Cancer Immunity and look forward to the contributions that shall impact the advancement of cancer immunotherapy.