Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD is Hillman Professor of Oncology and Director of the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Senior Vice President for Oncology Programs, Associate Senior 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. 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 was founding director of the Hillman Tumor Microenvironment Center, launched in 2012. He is a Principal Investigator of the University of Pittsburgh Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for translational head and neck research and three R01 grants focused on T cell receptor dynamics and immune phenotypes regulating response to immunotherapy.
Dr. Ferris has published >400 peer-reviewed scientific and clinical publications that have been cited >52,000 times. He was 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, testing radiation dose-deintensification after transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for HPV+ oropharynx cancer, which was incorporated into the latest NCCN guidelines. He currently leads ECOG-ACRIN 3132, using p53 mutational testing in HPV-negative cancer, to predict response to radiation versus chemoradiation.
Dr. Ferris has served on the Editorial Boards of JNCI, JCO, Journal of Immunotherapy of Cancer, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer, 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, serves as a standing member of NCI Committee A reviewing Cancer Centers and previously chaired the NIH Tumor Microenvironment study section. 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.
He is married to Laura Ferris, MD, PhD, and is proud of their 3 children, Rachel, Anna and Adam.
[button]Back to Presidents’ Main List »[/button]