Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD is Hillman Professor of Oncology and Director at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research, and Professor of Otolaryngology, of Immunology, and of Radiation Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh.
As a head and neck surgical oncologist and translational tumor immunologist, his lab performs neoadjuvant “window” trials developing novel immune-oncology agents, combinations and biomarkers. His group is uniquely positioned to investigate mechanisms of anti-tumor immunity in the tumor microenvironment (TME), as well as tumor cell escape. Dr. Ferris’s NIH-funded laboratory is focused on reversal of immune escape and immunotherapy using monoclonal antibodies and vaccines, leading to the first randomized phase II-III trials of head and cancer immunotherapy in the world. He is founding director of the Hillman Tumor Microenvironment Center. He is a Principal Investigator of the University of Pittsburgh Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for translational head and neck research and a R01 grant focused on T cell receptor dynamics and immune phenotypes regulating response to immunotherapy.
Dr. Ferris has an h-index of 103 and his >420 peer-reviewed scientific and clinical publications have garners >43,000 citations. He is lead investigator of several practice-changing, prospective randomized trials, including Checkmate-141 published in NEJM which led to the FDA approval of Nivolumab for head and neck cancer, ECOG 3311 (published in JCO in late 2021), testing radiation dose-deintensification after transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for HPV+ oropharynx cancer, as well as ECOG-ACRIN 3132, using p53 mutational testing in HPV-negative cancer, to predict response to radiation versus chemoradiation.
Dr. Ferris currently serves on the Editorial Boards of JNCI, JCO, Clinical Cancer Research, and Cancer Immunology Research. He is Editor in Chief of Oral Oncology. He recently completed a 6-year term co-chairing the NCI Steering Committee for Head and Neck Cancer, served as a standing member of NCI Committee A reviewing Cancer Centers, and is currently President-Elect of the American Head and Neck Society. He has co-founded two early phase immuno-oncology companies, in therapeutics discovery and development and in cellular therapeutic strategies for solid and liquid tumors, and serves on multiple scientific advisory boards for various biotech companies.