On Apr. 16, 2020, a team led by Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has earned a five-year, $14.54 million award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to expand a promising immunotherapy platform. Funded through the NCI’s Program Project Grant program, this prestigious five-year grant will fund five clinical trials, all focused on a strategy for making some of the most common immunotherapies work for more cancer patients.

“Our goal with this project is to convert cancers that are traditionally checkpoint-resistant into treatable, ‘hot’ tumors so that more patients will be able to benefit from some of the most commonly prescribed immunotherapies,” says Dr. Kalinski, who is Vice Chair for Translational Research, the Rustum Family Professor for Molecular Therapeutics and Translational Research and Director of Cancer Vaccine and Dendritic Cell Therapies at Roswell Park.

“This five-year National Cancer Institute grant continues a long tradition of groundbreaking immunotherapy research at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center,” says Congressman Brian Higgins. “The research the clinicians at Roswell are conducting represents the next generation of transformational care for cancer patients.”

“Cancer touches every family in one way or another,” says Congressman Tom Reed. “We are pleased to see this critical grant funding delivered to right here in our backyard to promote innovative breakthroughs for cancer treatment. We will continue to be a constant advocate for Roswell Park in the halls of Congress.”

Currently, depending on their cancer type and the genetic characteristics of their tumors, only about 20% of cancer patients are good candidates for a newer class of treatments called checkpoint inhibitors — drugs such as pembrolizumab (Keytruda), nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy). Even among