{"entity":{"id":"christian-blank","kind":"person","name":"Christian Blank","aka":[],"tldr":"Led NADINA, which showed giving immunotherapy before melanoma surgery beats giving it after.","summary":"Christian Blank is a medical oncologist and group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL) and Professor at Leiden University. His specialisms are melanoma, neoadjuvant immunotherapy and immune biomarkers. He pioneered checkpoint blockade before melanoma surgery through the OpACIN and PRADO studies and the phase 3 NADINA trial, which established response-directed neoadjuvant nivolumab plus ipilimumab. His New England Journal of Medicine paper on NADINA reported neoadjuvant nivolumab and ipilimumab in resectable stage III melanoma, showing that immunotherapy given before surgery beats giving it after. His publications are listed on PubMed.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Blank%20CU%5BAuthor%5D%20neoadjuvant%20melanoma"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["melanoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["nivolumab","ipilimumab"],"companies":[],"institutions":["nki"],"pathways":[],"terms":["neoadjuvant-adjuvant"],"trials":["nadina"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Medical Oncologist and Group Leader, Netherlands Cancer Institute; Professor, Leiden University","institutionId":"nki","specialisms":["Melanoma","Neoadjuvant immunotherapy","Immune biomarkers"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Blank%20CU%5BAuthor%5D%20neoadjuvant%20melanoma"}],"papers":[{"title":"Neoadjuvant nivolumab and ipilimumab in resectable stage III melanoma (NADINA)","journal":"NEJM","year":2024,"doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa2402604"}]},"route":"/people/christian-blank/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"stage-iii-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Stage III melanoma (after surgery)","route":"/cancers/stage-iii-melanoma/"}],"drug":[{"id":"ipilimumab","kind":"drug","name":"Ipilimumab","route":"/drugs/ipilimumab/"},{"id":"nivolumab","kind":"drug","name":"Nivolumab","route":"/drugs/nivolumab/"}],"institution":[{"id":"nki","kind":"institution","name":"Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI-AvL)","route":"/institutions/nki/"}],"term":[{"id":"neoadjuvant-adjuvant","kind":"term","name":"Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative","route":"/terms/neoadjuvant-adjuvant/"}],"trial":[{"id":"nadina","kind":"trial","name":"NADINA","route":"/trials/nadina/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-bio2-lymph-node-immune-priming","kind":"idea","name":"Treat the draining lymph node before removing it","route":"/ideas/idea-bio2-lymph-node-immune-priming/"},{"id":"idea-bio2-neoadjuvant-biomarker-engine","kind":"idea","name":"Use pre-surgery immunotherapy windows as the field's biomarker engine","route":"/ideas/idea-bio2-neoadjuvant-biomarker-engine/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-nadina-nejm-2024","kind":"paper","name":"NADINA: two doses of ipilimumab plus nivolumab before surgery beat a year of nivolumab after surgery in stage III melanoma","route":"/key-papers/paper-nadina-nejm-2024/"}]}}