Meeting report: The 13th annual meeting of the translational research cancer centers consortium (trc3); Immune suppression and the tumor microenvironment, Columbus, Ohio; March 1-2, 2010

The Translational Research Cancer Centers Consortium (TrC3) is a cancer immunotherapy network, established to promote biologic therapeutics in the Midwestern and Northeastern regions of The United States. The 13th Annual Meeting of the TrC3 was hosted by The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and took place at The Blackwell Hotel and Conference Center in Columbus, OH on March 1-2, 2010 (http://www.osuccc.osu.edu/TrC3/index.htm). This year,s theme was "Immune Suppression and the Tumor Microenvironment." The meeting consisted of 21 oral presentations, a roundtable discussion focused on enhancing collaborative relationships within the consortium, and a poster session with 54 abstracts from predoctoral or postdoctoral researchers. This annual meeting brought together more than 170 investigators from 9 regional cancer centers including: Abramson Cancer Center at The University of Pennsylvania, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute at Wayne State University, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Penn State Cancer Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. The proceedings of this year,s meeting are summarized in this report.