10 years of Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy

Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy is now in its 10th volume! In the foreword to the first volume, J. Desmond Fitzgerald stated that “the broader field of biologic therapy has only come of age in the last 20 years but now is poised to make a major impact on therapeutics.” We now look back over the last 10 years’ manuscripts in EOBT and are struck by how complex this transition into therapeutic application has been and how EOBT has provided the expert commentary that distills, explains, and prioritizes the issues involved, highlighting the most promising technologies and, frequently, identifying the technologies that may seem to be “outside the box’ but which could also represent new strategies for managing difficult-to-treat medical conditions. Illustrating the complexity in development and approval of biologics are the many reports on cancer vaccines. These articles point out how the success of clinical trials of immunotherapy for cancer will require further understanding of the ideal patient groups, immune correlates, and most appropriate clinical endpoints. The reporting on the development of dendritic cell vaccines for prostate cancer including Provenge and DCVax illustrates excellent commentary on these complex issues. Now Provenge stands at the threshold of an approval decision by FDA which would make it the first true anti-cancer vaccine to be approved. Therapeutic antibodies have continued to expand in number and range of targets. This is most apparent in the most recent issue of EOBT with reviews of antibodies against targets as diverse as folate receptor α, CD80, and RANK-ligand. Another area that has continued to gain momentum is that of stem cell therapy and it is expected that the next ten years will see this used more routinely as a therapeutic option for diverse medical conditions. Finally, glimpses of the future are suggested by manuscripts describing strategies for creating vascular structures to support development of new organs. While the ability to generate new tissue to replace damaged organs and structures routinely may be far in the future, we see the first glimpses of this possibility now 10 years into EOBTs coverage of biologic therapy.

Dr Michael Morse
Editor-in-Chief

Profile: Dr Micheal A. Morse

Dr Morse is a regular and invaluable contributor to Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, having joined the Editorial Board in 2000 and accepting the position of Editor-in-Chief in 2007. He is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University, and is a G.I. Oncologist at Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, where his clinical expertise lies in the treatment of gastrointestinal and hepatic malignancies, and malignant melanoma.

Dr Morse’s research focuses on developing strategies to activate T cell responses against tumors by immunizing patients with dendritic cell based vaccines. His group has continued to develop modifications to these vaccines, including loading with antigen in the form of peptides, mRNA, viral vectors and maturing dendritic cells with cytokines. Most recently, they have focused on genetically altering the expression of co-stimulatory and adhesion molecules, and have also identified preliminary data which suggests that it may be important to activate antibody responses as well as T cells in order to initiate immune-mediated destruction of tumors. The group is also working on other methods of modulating immune response, including anti-CTLA4 antibodies and strategies that interfere with inhibitory molecules such as PDL1. Further areas of research include other anti-cancer therapies to weaken the tumor’s ability to impair immune response, including combinations of cancer vaccines along with chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapies.

Dr Morse has contributed many papers to Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy during his time on the Editorial Board, including his recent papers listed below:

Countering tumor-induced immunosupression during immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer
Michael A Morse Joseph Robert Hall, Janet MD Plate
Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Mar 2009, Vol. 9, No. 3, Pages 331-339.

Update on anti-CTLA-4 antibodies in clinical trials
Lee F Langer, Timothy M Clay, Michael A Morse
Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Aug 2007, Vol. 7, No. 8, Pages 1245-1256.

Vascular endothelial growth factor and immunosupression in cancer: current knowledge and potential for new therapy
Benjamin F Johnson, Timothy M Clay, Amy C Hobeika, H Kim Lyerly, Michael A Morse
Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy, Apr 2007, Vol. 7, No. 4, Pages 449-460.