The previous Task Force for AllergoOncology recently transitioned into a Working Group under the Basic & Clinical Immunology section. Our new TF proposal called “AllergoOncology in the Era of Personalized, Stratified and Precision medicine” is a joint initiative with the WG on Genomics and Proteomics. For decades epidemiological evidence has pointed towards an association between allergy history and risk/prognosis of several tumor types. However, for some cancer types, findings have been contradictory among studies, probably due in part to a lack of stratification of patients into specific phenotypes, genotypes or endotypes, for both disorders. Allergies and tumors are both extremely heterogeneous, comprising a large spectrum of diseases. They result from the complex interplay of environmental and genetic risk factors. Being able to report on comorbidity using systematic, harmonized methods for stratifying patients for specific subtypes would undeniably lead to novel concepts for understanding the disease mechanisms. Such a strategy would allow drawing innovative data-driven research lines working towards early detection, prevention and personalized treatment options for patients with different cancer subtypes. Our primary objective is to communicate to the scientific community that it is timely to adopt systematic approaches and up-to-date molecular and genetic subclassification developed in cancers and allergies when investigating their comorbidity. To this end, our primary goal will be to establish a strong multidisciplinary team composed of epidemiologists as well as scientists with either basic, clinical and/or computational expertise in the evolving fields of allergy and/or oncology. Additionally, we will collectively work on a position paper on such a theme with the ultimate aim to inform resource-stratified guidelines to support the development of innovative next generation clinical and epidemiological studies in the field of AllergoOncology.

Chair: Aurelie Poli
Secretary: Michelle Turner