Dr. Constantinos N. Baxevanis Dr. Constantinos Baxevanis has been working with success during the last 20 years with the immunology an immunotherapy of cancer. During that time he has published high-impact papers on the subject of the development and testing of therapeutic vaccines in the context of translational and clinical research. In addition the laboratory of Dr. Baxevanis has been working on the identification of prognostic and diagnostic cancer biomarkers. Dr. Baxevanis has 145 publications indexed in PubMed and about 5300 citations with an h-index of 38. In addition, Dr. Baxevanis is a member of the editorial boards of the journals Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy as well as of Vaccine and is the president of the European commission PIVAC (Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer)
Immunotherapeutic strategies against cancer have emerged as potent weapons for cancer therapy. Successful treatments with immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic melanoma and T-cell chimeric antigen receptor treatments for B-cell leukemia and lymphomas are just two examples that have been changing the established paradigm for the clinical management of cancer. In addition, the discovery of neoantigens gives hope for the development of cancer vaccines as well as for the improvement of cellular immunotherapy. As a result, we are witnessing a radical transformation in cancer therapy that will be strengthened by combination with traditional therapeutic approaches. However, tumor immune evasion through multiple mechanisms is still a significant obstacle. Efforts to understand the dysfunction of the immune system and cancer in the context of local or systemic immunosuppression can provide novel ideas for improved therapeutic strategies. In the future it may be possible to adapt each individual patient’s immune system by personalized therapies in order to enhance clinical results. Discovery of biomarkers that reveal the effectiveness of immunotherapeutic strategies will also constitute an important factor for the enhancement in cancer prognosis and therapy.