The First Annual Meeting of the Society of Biotherapeutic Approaches was held in 1997 with the aim to enable the feedback of results of basic biotherapeutic research to patients with incurable diseases. These meetings are unique in the point that both basic and clinical investigators meet together and discuss the direction of research needed to find the best therapeutic strategy for patients. We have now reached the stage where results of basic research can be applied to patients with cancer. For example, humanized monoclonal antibodies against HER2/neu, CD20, and VEGF are now clinically available. Tumor vaccine therapies utilizing synthetic peptides and/or monocyte-derived dendritic cells are now included in translational research.
This special issue of ANTICANCER RESEARCH presents a part of the proceedings of “The 12th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biotherapeutic Approaches” which was held in Fukuoka, Japan, December 2008.
In editing this issue we felt very fortunate to find that most of the papers contain original data and valuable concepts. For this reason, we are confident that this issue will be a milestone in the history of our meetings.
We are deeply indebted to invited speakers, Drs. H. Niiro, Kyushu University Hospital, and T. Morisaki, Fukuoka Cancer General Hospital. We thank our sponsors who contributed to the success of this meeting. We thank all the participants, and especially the contributors to this issue. We also wish to express our thanks to the publishers of ANTICANCER RESEARCH.
- Copyright© 2009 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved
