In short CCIT comprise clinical and experimental expertise in tumor immunology. The Centre has approx. 25 employees; scientists, clinicians, PhD students, as well as technicians. The Centre has extensive experience in initiating clinical trials in cancer, and more than 100 cancer patients have been vaccinated with dendritic cell based therapeutic vaccinations and new facilities for GCP production of cellular products for clinical use was recently opened, enabling trials using adoptive cell transfer of tumor specific T cells. Currently 5 trials are active (www.clinicaltrial.gov), including patients with both solid and hematological malignancies. Concerning experimental cancer research the laboratory is equipped with state of the art instruments for flow cytometry (eg. 2 FACSAria and one LSR-II instrument), cell culture, PCR, in house construction of recombinant proteins (HLA molecules), DNA and RNA transfections, serum analyses, ect. Main experimental contributions have been made in characterization of tumor antigens recognized by CD8 T cells, studies of T cell biology, cancer genetics, dendritic cell biology, regulatory T cells, and biological monitoring of therapeutic vaccination trials, ect.
CCIT has an international profile with an extensive network with scientists and clinicians in European and the US. CCIT are founding members of European Society for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy, and Nordic “Network for anti-tumor vaccination” NCEV: www.cck.ki.se/ncev. Moreover, CCIT are active members of the European “Cancer Immunotherapy (C-IMTC) Monitoring Group”, focusing on standardization of biological monitoring of clinical trials using biological modifiers.