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Runs the platform that studies patients' tumours before and after immunotherapy to learn why checkpoint drugs work or fail.
Padmanee Sharma is Professor of Genitourinary Medical Oncology and Immunology and Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Platform at MD Anderson Cancer Center. A medical oncologist and immunologist, she pioneered pre-surgical immunotherapy trials that study drug mechanisms in human tissue, examining patients' tumours before and after treatment to learn why checkpoint drugs work or fail. She co-leads the Parker Institute site at MD Anderson and the immunotherapy platform with James Allison, with work on ICOS, VISTA and resistance to checkpoint blockade. Her papers include a Cell review of primary, adaptive and acquired resistance to cancer immunotherapy and a Science perspective on the future of immune checkpoint therapy, spanning CTLA-4 and PD-1 in prostate, bladder and kidney cancer.
| Title | Journal | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Primary, Adaptive, and Acquired Resistance to Cancer Immunotherapy | Cell | 2017 |
| The future of immune checkpoint therapy | Science | 2015 |
| Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma | New England Journal of Medicine | 2010 |
| Leach, Krummel and Allison: releasing the CTLA-4 brake makes mice reject tumours | Science | 1996 |
This paper launched the immunotherapy era. It was the first randomised evidence that taking a brake off the immune system could extend life in a solid cancer, and it introduced clinicians to immune-related adverse events and to responses that arrive late or after apparent progression. Ipilimumab alone has since been superseded by PD-1 antibodies and combinations, but every checkpoint programme traces back to this result.
Every checkpoint inhibitor, from ipilimumab to pembrolizumab, rests on this idea: the immune system can already recognise cancer and just needs its brakes released. It changed the goal of immunotherapy from vaccinating against tumours to unleashing existing T cells.
Shares Leach, Krummel and Allison: releasing the CTLA-4 brake makes mice reject tumours, Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, CTLA-4.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, CTLA-4, PD-1.
Shares Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, CTLA-4, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Prostate cancer.
Shares Hodi 2010: ipilimumab, the first checkpoint inhibitor, extends survival in metastatic melanoma, CTLA-4, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares MD Anderson Cancer Center, Bladder & urothelial cancer.
Shares CTLA-4, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Shares CTLA-4, PD-1, Immune checkpoint inhibitors.