The 6th annual Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy Colloquium at Walker's Cay was 
held under the auspices of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute on March 10-13, 
2004. The Colloquium consisted of a select group of 34 scientists representing 
academia, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. The main goal of this 
gathering was to promote in a peaceful and comfortable environment exchanges 
between basic and clinical science. The secondary benefit was to inspire novel 
bench to bedside ventures and at the same time provide feed back about promising 
and/or disappointing clinical results that could help re-frame some scientific 
question or guide the design of future trials. Several topics were covered that 
included tumor antigen discovery and validation, platforms for vaccine 
development, tolerance, immune suppression and tumor escape mechanisms, adoptive 
T cell therapy and dendritic cell-based therapies, clinical trials and 
assessment of response. Here we report salient points raised by speakers or by 
the audience during animated discussion that followed each individual 
presentation.