We often talk about ‘on-target off-target’ side effects, but what about the equivalent on-site off-the-reservation meetings?  I’m a big fan of these, it has to be said.

Spring time in Chicago feels more like… October – brrrr!

My first day at AACR18 in Chicago this year was sandwiched by two such events, one of those welcome to AACR moments – never mind the frigid weather – to be sure.

First off, you have to be on the relevant distribution lists to get invited, then hope the organisers accept your registration, such is the life of scientists on the dark side (journalism/media).

In the past, these off-reservation scientific events around AACR have been well run and very useful for picking up new companies or targets ahead of the mainstream news and this year I wasn’t disappointed.

One of the Previews that I didn’t get time to write up was on CAR T cell therapies because there was a huge surfeit of new companies, new targets and lots of unproven mouse data, which is a recipe for speculation without representation (of clinical data).  So on the basis that the good stuff will rise to the top, I figured that it might be more efficient to summarise an event instead, as past events have proven very useful in this somewhat singular approach.

We all know that we need to go beyond CD19 as a target in hematology malignancies, and that the promise in solid tumours is high, but data scant, so where are the gems to watch out for?

Here. we take a look at some up-and-coming approaches and companies to watch out for to cut to the chase for BSB readers interested in this space…

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