Dr. Michelle M. Dugan, Kate E. Beekman, Dr. Danielle K. DePalo, Lily M. Parker, and Dr. Kelly M. Elleson have no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose. Dr. John E. Mullinax is an inventor on intellectual property that Moffitt Cancer Center has licensed to Iovance Biotherapeutics. He participates in sponsored research agreements with Iovance Biotherapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, and SQZ Biotech that are not related to this research. He has received research support that is not related to this research from the following entities: NIH-NCI (K08CA252642), Ocala Royal Dames, and V Foundation. Dr. Mullinax has received consulting fees from Merit Medical, Lyell Therapeutics, and Iovance Biotherapeutics. Dr. Amod A. Sarnaik is a co-inventor on a patent application with Provectus Biopharmaceuticals. Dr. Sarnaik has received consulting fees from Iovance Biotherapeutics, Guidepoint, Defined Health, Huron Consulting Group, KeyQuest Health Inc, Istari, Rising Tide, and Gerson Lehrman Group. Dr. Sarnaik has received speaker fees from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Physicians’ Educational Resource (PER) LLC, Medscape, and Medstar Health. Dr. Vernon K. Sondak serves in a consulting or advisory role for Merck/Schering Plough, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Regeneron, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Alkermes, Ultimovacs, Genesis Drug Discovery & Development, and Sun Pharma. He has received research funding to the institution (Moffitt Cancer Center) from Neogene Therapeutics, Turnstone Bio, and Skyline Diagnostics, not related to this research. Dr. Matthew C. Perez has received consulting fees from Replimune and Guidepoint. Dr. Jonathan S. Zager has received payments from Delcath Systems – Medical Advisory Board. He has received fees from Philogen, Merit Medical, Castle Biosciences, Menarini Silicon Biosystems, Replimune and Merck. His department receives research funding from Philogen, SWOG, Delcath Systems, and Provectus. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

This research was conducted under the approval of the Advarra IRB, approval number Pro00061990 (FWA 00023875), located in Columbia, Maryland (6100 Merriweather Drive, Suite 600, Columbia, MD, USA 21044), approved on March 9, 2022. The Advarra IRB deemed the study as exempt, and patient informed consent was not required