This application requested funds to help defray the travel and lodging expenses of speakers and chairpersons who participated in the Thirty-eighth Annual Symposium on Fundamental Cancer Research, sponsored by the University of Texas System Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. The meeting was held from February 26th through March 1, 1985, in Houston, Texas. The purposes of this symposium were to: (1) stimulate discussion of recent advances in a particular area of basic research and their application to cancer prevention and treatment; (2) provide a forum for scientific exchange among basic researchers and clinical practitioners; and (3) provide an overview of recent advances in a particular area of cancer research. The topic of the 1985 symposium was """"""""Immunology and Cancer"""""""". Within the past few years a great deal of new information has been generated on several aspects of basic immunology. New advances concern the organization of genetic information coding for molecules involved in immunological recognition (e.g., antibodies, Class I and Class II antigens, T-cell receptor), networks that control immune responsiveness, a better understanding of the ontogeny and differentiation of lymphoid ells, and identification of effector molecules that mediate various steps in immunological reactions (e.g., lymphokines, cytokines, suppressor and augmenting factors). The symposium had three components - a review of these scientific advances, a review of our current understanding of the immune response against cancer in light of this new information, and a discussion of immunological approches to cancer therapy. This program should bridge the gap between basic immunology and tumor immunology that has resulted from these recent advances and should stimulate an analysis of how these advances might be applied to cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. We invited distinguished scientists active in the areas of basic immunology and tumor immunology, to participate in the presentations and discussions. (IS)
