The symposium brought together Oxford’s cancer immunology community for a day of scientific exchange, showcasing the breadth of immuno-oncology research across the network The programme explored fundamental mechanisms of tumour recognition and immune escape, tumour modelling, and translational cancer research, alongside poster presentations, a patient and public involvement (PPI) session, networking opportunities, and pump-prime scheme pitches highlighting innovative ideas and new collaborations.
The day opened with a welcome from Professor Tim Elliott, followed by an introduction from Nabina Pun on behalf of the OCION Early Career Researchers (ECR) Committee. The programme featured strong participation from early career researchers throughout, with short talks, posters and awards judged by the ECR community.
The first scientific session, chaired by Professor Tim Elliott, focused on tumour recognition and immune escape. Speakers explored how tumours are detected by the immune system, how they evade immune surveillance, and how these mechanisms could be harnessed therapeutically. Highlights included talks from Dr Jie Yang on aspirin and T-cell immunity to cancer metastasis, DPhil student Om H. Gandhi on tumour immune escape, and Professor Eileen Parkes on chromosomal instability and the immune landscape. Short talks from Matthew T. Jackson and Adan Pinto-Fernández examined anti-tumour CD8+ T-cell immunity and innate immune modulation.
Following the first poster session, chaired by Professor David Withers, the programme turned to tumour models for evolving cancer. Presentations explored experimental, computational and translational approaches to understanding tumour evolution and immune organisation. Speakers included Dr Giulia Orlando, Dr Anthony Hsieh, Dr Isabela Pedroza-Pacheco and DPhil in Cancer student Nicholas Lai, whose talks covered colorectal cancer models, AI-supported neoantigen prediction, tertiary lymphoid structures and mathematical modelling of tumour immune architecture.
After lunch, attendees took part in a patient and public involvement session led by Catriona Gilmour-Hamilton, Julliet Lwiindi and Alex Colton, highlighting the importance of involving patients in fundamental cancer research.
The afternoon session, chaired by Dr Silvia Panetti, focused on treatment and translational cancer research. Talks from Dr Felipe Galvez-Cancino, Dr Ahmet Hazini, Professor Ben Fairfax and Dr Mariana Pereira Pinho explored tumour-associated phagocytes, CAR-macrophages, immune metabolism and checkpoint blockade, and how pembrolizumab reshapes tumour-reactive T-cell responses in triple-negative breast cancer.
A second poster session provided further opportunities for discussion and networking before the final scientific session, chaired by Professor Tim Elliott. Following an introduction to the network's brand new Phoenix Pump Priming Scheme by Oxford Cancer Project Manager, Ester Gea-Mallorquí, researchers presented new ideas for funding and collaboration opportunities to help shape the future of immuno-oncology research in Oxford.
The symposium concluded with a keynote lecture from Professor Sebastian Amigorena (Institut Curie, Paris), titled Dark genome and tumour immunity, exploring the relationship between non-canonical genomic regions and tumour immune recognition.
The day closed with awards recognising outstanding early career researchers and poster presenters. The OCION ECR Committee selected Oxford Cancer DPhil in Cancer Science students Nicholas Lai and Eva Hanlon for the Best Short Talk and Best Poster awards, respectively, while attendees voted DPhil student Haofeng Chen as the Public Choice Best Poster winner.
The symposium concluded with a networking reception, giving attendees the opportunity to continue discussions, strengthen collaborations and celebrate another successful year of cancer immuno-oncology research at Oxford.