The IOTN is designed to accelerate research on cancer immunotherapy and is expected to provide a synergistic environment for Cancer Immunoprevention Research Projects. Cancer Immunoprevention Research Projects will conduct research designed to identify the earliest exploitable changes in the carcinogenic process and develop immune-based interventions.

Cancer Immunoprevention Research Projects will focus on cancers that occur in specific organ sites in high-risk cohorts. Animal models that phenocopy the human disease may be employed with the goal of identifying actionable targets arising in pre-cancerous lesions and evaluating whether the immune system can target these earliest cellular changes to inform early intervention (prevention) approaches. In contrast to immunotherapy, where malignant tumors have already grown and evolved at the molecular level, establishing a complex and immunosuppressive microenvironment, early intervention may directly intercept and eradicate emerging premalignant clones. Identification of exploitable immune targets in these earliest lesions could ultimately be the basis for vaccines applied to prevent adult tumors.