Concepts in mature T-cell lymphomas – highlights from an international joint symposium on T-cell immunology and oncology^*

Abstract

Growing attention in mature T-cell lymphomas/leukemias (MTCL) is committed to more accurate and meaningful classifications, improved pathogenetic concepts and expanded therapeutic options. This requires considerations of the immunologic concepts of T-cell homeostasis and the specifics of T-cell receptor (TCR) affinities and signaling. Scientists from various disciplines established the CONTROL-T research unit and in an international conference on MTCL they brought together experts from T-cell immunity, oncology, immunotherapy and systems biology. We report here meeting highlights on the covered topics of diagnostic pitfalls, implications by the new WHO classification, insights from discovered genomic lesions as well as TCR-centric concepts of cellular dynamics in host defense, auto-immunity and tumorigenic clonal escape, including predictions to be derived from in vivo imaging and mathematical modeling. Presentations on novel treatment approaches were supplemented by strategies of optimizing T-cell immunotherapies. Work packages, that in joint efforts would advance the field of MTCL more efficiently, are identified.

Keywords:

• Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell
• T-cell homeostasis
• T-cell immunotherapy
• T-cell leukemia
• T-cell lymphoma
• T-cell receptor

Acknowledgments

We thank Mrs. M. Mildenberger (Frankfurt, Germany) for assistance in the organization of the conference. We are indebted to the cofounder of CONTROL-T, D.v. Laer (Innsbruck, Austria), for her inspiring and precipitating input. We thank all speakers for presenting their data and sharing their insights.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1222381.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the German Research Foundation (DFG) for funding of the consortium [FOR1961] and the meeting.