Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, Clinical Accelerator Investigator The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Area of Research: All Cancers Dr. Padmanee Sharma is a professor in the departments of genitourinary medical oncology and immunology, and the scientific director for the Immunotherapy Platform at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is the study chair of the clinical trial “Treatment with Nivolumab and Ipilimumab or Nivolumab Alone According to the Percentage of Tumoral CD8 Cells in Advanced Metastatic Cancer (AMADEUS)” (NCT03651271). This combination trial tests the efficacy of two checkpoint immunotherapies in patients who have relapsed after receiving the standard of care. One checkpoint therapy, nivolumab (Opdivo®), blocks the PD-1 pathway, whereas the other, ipilmumab (Yervoy®), blocks the CTLA-4 pathway. This trial is also designed to prospectively evaluate the clinical value of an important immune-related biomarker: the presence of “killer” T cells with tumors. Accordingly, patients with “hot” tumors infiltrated by T cells will only receive the PD-1 immunotherapy, whereas patients with immune “cold” tumors lacking T cells will receive the combination of both checkpoint immunotherapies in order to convert their tumors into “hot” tumors. Additional investigators working on this trial include: Alexandra Drakaki, MD, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles Apostolia Tsimberidou, MD, PhD, MD Anderson Cancer Center Danny Khalil, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center David Oh, MD, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Saad Khan, MD, Stanford University Stephen Hodi, MD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute Projects and Grants Treatment with Nivolumab and Ipilimumab or Nivolumab Alone According to the Percentage of Tumoral CD8 Cells in Advanced Metastatic Cancer (AMADEUS) (NCT03651271) The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center | All Cancers | 2018
