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Immunologist who helped define the PD-1 pathway's role in cancer and built one of the largest immunotherapy institutes.
Drew M. Pardoll is Director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a tumour immunologist who helped define the role of the PD-1 pathway in cancer, co-discovering PD-L2 and contributing to the clinical development of PD-1 blockade. His selected paper reviews the blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy. He now directs one of the largest immunotherapy institutes, with continued interests in immune checkpoint inhibitors and cancer vaccines.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| The blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy | Nature Reviews Cancer | 2012 |
| Iwai and Honjo: tumours use PD-L1 to escape T cells, and blocking it restores attack | PNAS | 2002 |
| Le 2015: PD-1 blockade works in tumours with mismatch-repair deficiency, whatever the organ | New England Journal of Medicine | 2015 |
| Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer | New England Journal of Medicine | 2012 |
This small trial explained why colorectal cancer had seemed immune-resistant (most is MMR-proficient) and established the principle that a genomic feature, not the tissue of origin, can predict immunotherapy response. It led directly to the 2017 tissue-agnostic approval of pembrolizumab and to routine MMR/MSI testing of many cancers. Every patient with advanced dMMR cancer should now be considered for checkpoint blockade.
This is the most cited map of the immunotherapy revolution and a good first read before the trials. Its predictions largely held: PD-1 pathway antibodies became the most widely used cancer drugs, PD-L1 testing entered practice, and LAG-3 blockade was approved in melanoma a decade later.
This study is why PD-1 inhibitors were developed across cancers rather than in melanoma alone: unexpected activity in lung cancer, historically thought immune-resistant, changed drug development priorities industry-wide. It also introduced PD-L1 immunohistochemistry as a candidate biomarker and pneumonitis as a signature toxicity. Within five years PD-1 blockade was approved in more than ten cancers.
Tumours hide from T cells by displaying PD-L1; blocking that interaction lets the immune system attack. This is the mechanism of pembrolizumab, nivolumab, atezolizumab and their relatives, which now treat more than 20 cancer types.
Shares Michael Bloomberg, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, Johns Hopkins Hospital / Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Shares Iwai and Honjo: tumours use PD-L1 to escape T cells, and blocking it restores attack, Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, PD-L1, PD-1.
Shares Pardoll 2012: the blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy, Immune surveillance and cancer immunoediting, PD-L1, PD-1.
Shares Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, PD-L1, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Pardoll 2012: the blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy, Immune surveillance and cancer immunoediting, PD-L1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, Topalian 2012: the first large trial of a PD-1 antibody shows durable responses across melanoma, lung and kidney cancer, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Iwai and Honjo: tumours use PD-L1 to escape T cells, and blocking it restores attack, Immune surveillance and cancer immunoediting, PD-1 / PD-L1 immune checkpoint & T-cell activation, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Pardoll 2012: the blockade of immune checkpoints in cancer immunotherapy, PD-1 / PD-L1 immune checkpoint & T-cell activation, PD-L1, PD-1.