Immunotherapy of Sarcoma

Seth M. Pollack is a physician-scientist whose research is entirely focused on the development of novel immunotherapies for patients with advanced sarcoma. The Pollack Lab has a particular interest in synovial sarcoma (SS) and myxoid/round cell liposarcoma (MRCL). The Lab has demonstrated that, like SS, MRCL tumors almost always homogeneously express a protein called NY-ESO-1, which is a member of the cancer-testes antigen family with features that make it an attractive target for immunotherapy. Using clinical grade reagents, the Pollack Lab developed a methodology for isolating and expanding NY-ESO-1-specific T cells from the peripheral blood of sarcoma patients and adoptively transferring these cells to specifically kill NY-ESO-1 expressing tumor cells. In a first clinical trial, clinical anti-tumor activity was unfortunately short lived but novel mechanisms of immune evasion were identified. Now, a new first-in-man trial is being planned to address these issues. The Pollack lab has also been characterizing the sarcoma immune microenvironment. Based on new and surprising findings, the lab has designed new, open, and enrolling investigator-sponsored trials for sarcoma patients using diverse immunotherapeutic strategies.