{"entity":{"id":"luis-diaz","kind":"person","name":"Luis A. Diaz Jr.","aka":[],"tldr":"Co-led the work that made pembrolizumab the first tumour-agnostic cancer drug approval, for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours.","summary":"Trained at Johns Hopkins with Vogelstein and Kinzler, where he co-founded Personal Genome Diagnostics and helped establish circulating tumour DNA as a clinical tool. The 2015 and 2017 studies of PD-1 blockade in dMMR tumours led to the 2017 tissue-agnostic approval of pembrolizumab. At MSK he co-led the dostarlimab rectal cancer programme.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Diaz%20LA%20Jr%5BAuthor%5D"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal"],"sections":[],"technologies":["liquid-biopsy","checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":["pd1"],"drugs":["pembrolizumab","dostarlimab"],"companies":[],"institutions":["mskcc"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Head, Division of Solid Tumor Oncology","institutionId":"mskcc","specialisms":["MSI-high / dMMR tumours","Immunotherapy","Liquid biopsy","Colorectal cancer"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Diaz%20LA%20Jr%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[{"title":"PD-1 blockade in tumors with mismatch-repair deficiency","journal":"New England Journal of Medicine","year":2015,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1500596","doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa1500596"},{"title":"Mismatch repair deficiency predicts response of solid tumors to PD-1 blockade","journal":"Science","year":2017,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan6733","doi":"10.1126/science.aan6733"},{"title":"Cercek 2022: six months of dostarlimab alone made rectal cancer disappear in every patient with mismatch-repair deficiency","journal":"New England Journal of Medicine","year":2022,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2201445","doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa2201445"},{"title":"KEYNOTE-177: pembrolizumab instead of chemotherapy as first treatment for mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer","journal":"New England Journal of Medicine","year":2020,"url":"https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2017699","doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa2017699"}]},"route":"/people/luis-diaz/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"},{"id":"msi-high-colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Mismatch-repair deficient (MSI-high) colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/msi-high-colorectal/"},{"id":"rectal-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Rectal cancer","route":"/cancers/rectal-cancer/"}],"technology":[{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"},{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"}],"target":[{"id":"pd1","kind":"target","name":"PD-1","route":"/targets/pd1/"}],"drug":[{"id":"dostarlimab","kind":"drug","name":"Dostarlimab","route":"/drugs/dostarlimab/"},{"id":"pembrolizumab","kind":"drug","name":"Pembrolizumab","route":"/drugs/pembrolizumab/"}],"institution":[{"id":"mskcc","kind":"institution","name":"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/mskcc/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-springer-pancreatic-cyst-molecular-classification-gastroenterology-2015","kind":"paper","name":"A combination of molecular markers and clinical features improve the classification of pancreatic cysts","route":"/key-papers/paper-springer-pancreatic-cyst-molecular-classification-gastroenterology-2015/"},{"id":"paper-cercek-dostarlimab-rectal-nejm-2022","kind":"paper","name":"Cercek 2022: six months of dostarlimab alone made rectal cancer disappear in every patient with mismatch-repair deficiency","route":"/key-papers/paper-cercek-dostarlimab-rectal-nejm-2022/"},{"id":"paper-keynote-177-nejm-2020","kind":"paper","name":"KEYNOTE-177: pembrolizumab instead of chemotherapy as first treatment for mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-keynote-177-nejm-2020/"},{"id":"paper-le-mmr-deficiency-pd1-nejm-2015","kind":"paper","name":"Le 2015: PD-1 blockade works in tumours with mismatch-repair deficiency, whatever the organ","route":"/key-papers/paper-le-mmr-deficiency-pd1-nejm-2015/"},{"id":"paper-le-mmr-deficiency-science-2017","kind":"paper","name":"Le 2017: mismatch-repair deficiency predicts response to PD-1 blockade across twelve tumour types, leading to the first tissue-agnostic drug approval","route":"/key-papers/paper-le-mmr-deficiency-science-2017/"},{"id":"paper-wu-gnas-ipmn-sci-transl-med-2011","kind":"paper","name":"Recurrent GNAS mutations define an unexpected pathway for pancreatic cyst development","route":"/key-papers/paper-wu-gnas-ipmn-sci-transl-med-2011/"},{"id":"paper-diaz-molecular-evolution-egfr-resistance-colorectal-nature-2012","kind":"paper","name":"The molecular evolution of acquired resistance to targeted EGFR blockade in colorectal cancers","route":"/key-papers/paper-diaz-molecular-evolution-egfr-resistance-colorectal-nature-2012/"}]}}