Research Summary

Lawrence Fong, MD, is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology and leads the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at UCSF. He also co-directs the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF and co-leads the Cancer Immunology Program in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a physician-scientist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology directing both a translational research program and a research lab. He has focused on cancer immunotherapy for over 20 years and has been involved in both pre-clinical and clinical studies of FDA-approved immunotherapies including sipuleucel-T and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Dr. Fong's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that underlie clinical response and resistance to immunotherapies. This work includes tracking antigen-specific T cell responses in treated cancer patients and developing biomarkers that are associated with clinical outcomes. The Cancer Immunotherapy Program that he directs performs early phase and high risk clinical trials across different disease indications. This program also includes a translational laboratory that performs mechanistic studies on samples derived from patients undergoing treatment.

Research Funding

  • August 1, 2021 - July 31, 2028 - Determinants of response to cancer immunotherapy , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R35CA253175
  • March 1, 2021 - February 28, 2026 - Precision targeting of T cell cytotoxicity with PET , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA258297
  • September 23, 2019 - August 31, 2024 - Mechanisms of Exosome Driven Immunoregulation of Cancer Progression , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01CA244452
  • January 16, 2018 - December 31, 2023 - Determinants of prostate cancer sensitivity to PD-1 blockade , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA223484

Education

Columbia University, New York, NY, BA, 1984-1988, Pre-Med., Economics
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, MD, 1988-1992

Honors & Awards

  • 1990
    Stanford Alumni Medical Scholar
  • 1993
    Alpha Omega Alpha
  • 1997
    American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award
  • 1997
    American Cancer Society Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award
  • 1997
    American Association for Cancer Research AFLAC Award
  • 2002
    American Association for Cancer Research Scholar-in-Training Award
  • 2003
    V Foundation Scholar

Selected Publications

  1. Raj N, Chan JA, Wang SJ, Aggarwal RR, Calabrese S, DeMore A, Fong L, Grabowsky J, Hope TA, Kolli KP, Mulvey CK, Munster PN, Perez K, Punn S, Reidy-Lagunes D, Von Fedak S, Zhang L, Bergsland EK. Pembrolizumab alone and pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in previously treated, extrapulmonary poorly differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas. Br J Cancer. 2023 May 19.  View on PubMed
  2. Tanaka M, Lum L, Hu K, Ledezma-Soto C, Superville D, Ng K, Adams Z, Kersten K, Fong L, Krummel M, Reeves M. Tumor cell heterogeneity drives spatial organization of the intratumoral immune response in squamous cell skin carcinoma. bioRxiv. 2023 Apr 26.  View on PubMed
  3. Jindal T, Zhu X, Bose R, Kumar V, Maldonado E, Deshmukh P, Shipp C, Feng S, Johnson MS, Angelidakis A, Kwon D, Borno HT, de Kouchkovsky I, Desai A, Aggarwal R, Fong L, Small EJ, Wong A, Porten S, Chou J, Friedlander T, Koshkin VS. Somatic alterations of TP53 and MDM2 associated with response to enfortumab vedotin in patients with advanced urothelial cancer. Front Oncol. 2023; 13:1161089.  View on PubMed
  4. Conway JR, Tewari AK, Camp SY, Han S, Crowdis J, He MX, Nyame YA, AlDubayan SH, Schultz N, Szallasi Z, Pomerantz MM, Freedman ML, Fong L, Nelson PS, Brown M, Salari K, Allen EV. Analysis of evolutionary dynamics and clonal architecture in prostate cancer. bioRxiv. 2023 Mar 25.  View on PubMed
  5. Rahim MK, Okholm TLH, Jones KB, McCarthy EE, Liu CC, Yee JL, Tamaki SJ, Marquez DM, Tenvooren I, Wai K, Cheung A, Davidson BR, Johri V, Samad B, O'Gorman WE, Krummel MF, van Zante A, Combes AJ, Angelo M, Fong L, Algazi AP, Ha P, Spitzer MH. Dynamic CD8+ T�cell responses to cancer immunotherapy in human regional lymph nodes are disrupted in metastatic lymph nodes. Cell. 2023 03 16; 186(6):1127-1143.e18.  View on PubMed
  6. Rancan C, Arias-Badia M, Dogra P, Chen B, Aran D, Yang H, Luong D, Ilano A, Li J, Chang H, Kwek SS, Zhang L, Lanier LL, Meng MV, Farber DL, Fong L. Exhausted intratumoral Vd2- ?d T cells in human kidney cancer retain effector function. Nat Immunol. 2023 Mar 16.  View on PubMed
  7. Sinha M, Betts C, Zhang L, Griffith MJ, Solman I, Chen B, Liu E, Tamaki W, Stultz J, Marquez J, Sivagnanam S, Cheung A, Pener D, Fahlman A, Taber E, Lerner K, Crocker M, Todd K, Rajagopalan B, Ware C, Bridge M, Vo J, Dragomanovich H, Sudduth-Klinger J, Vaccaro G, Lopez CD, Tempero M, Coussens LM, Fong L. Modulation of myeloid and T cells in vivo by Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. J Immunother Cancer. 2023 01; 11(1).  View on PubMed
  8. Kwon DH, Shakhnazaryan N, Shui D, Hong JC, Mohamad O, de Kouchkovsky I, Borno HT, Bose R, Chou J, Desai A, Fong L, Friedlander TW, Koshkin VS, Aggarwal RR, Feng FY, Hope TA, Small EJ. Serial stereotactic body radiation therapy for oligometastatic prostate cancer detected by novel PET-based radiotracers. Urol Oncol. 2023 Mar; 41(3):145.e7-145.e15.  View on PubMed
  9. Sjöström M, Zhao SG, Levy S, Zhang M, Ning Y, Shrestha R, Lundberg A, Herberts C, Foye A, Aggarwal R, Hua JT, Li H, Bergamaschi A, Maurice-Dror C, Maheshwari A, Chen S, Ng SWS, Ye W, Petricca J, Fraser M, Chesner L, Perry MD, Moreno-Rodriguez T, Chen WS, Alumkal JJ, Chou J, Morgans AK, Beer TM, Thomas GV, Gleave M, Lloyd P, Phillips T, McCarthy E, Haffner MC, Zoubeidi A, Annala M, Reiter RE, Rettig MB, Witte ON, Fong L, Bose R, Huang FW, Luo J, Bjartell A, Lang JM, Mahajan NP, Lara PN, Evans CP, Tran PT, Posadas EM, He C, Cui XL, Huang J, Zwart W, Gilbert LA, Maher CA, Boutros PC, Chi KN, Ashworth A, Small EJ, He HH, Wyatt AW, Quigley DA, Feng FY. The 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Landscape of Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res. 2022 11 02; 82(21):3888-3902.  View on PubMed
  10. Keenan BP, McCarthy EE, Ilano A, Yang H, Zhang L, Allaire K, Fan Z, Li T, Lee DS, Sun Y, Cheung A, Luong D, Chang H, Chen B, Marquez J, Sheldon B, Kelley RK, Ye CJ, Fong L. Circulating monocytes associated with anti-PD-1 resistance in human biliary cancer induce T cell paralysis. Cell Rep. 2022 09 20; 40(12):111384.  View on PubMed
  11. Lee JC, Fong L. Agonizing over the Stimulatory Immune Checkpoint ICOS. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 09 01; 28(17):3633-3635.  View on PubMed
  12. Sugie T, Salgado R, Fong L. Editorial: Advancements in immunology and immunotherapy for breast cancer. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:979806.  View on PubMed
  13. Kwon H, Schafer JM, Song NJ, Kaneko S, Li A, Xiao T, Ma A, Allen C, Das K, Zhou L, Riesenberg B, Chang Y, Weltge P, Velegraki M, Oh DY, Fong L, Ma Q, Sundi D, Chung D, Li X, Li Z. Androgen conspires with the CD8+ T cell exhaustion program and contributes to sex bias in cancer. Sci Immunol. 2022 07; 7(73):eabq2630.  View on PubMed
  14. Stein MN, Fong L, Tutrone R, Mega A, Lam ET, Parsi M, Vangala S, Gutierrez AA, Haas NB. ADXS31142 Immunotherapy ± Pembrolizumab Treatment for Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer: Open-Label Phase I/II KEYNOTE-046 Study. Oncologist. 2022 06 08; 27(6):453-461.  View on PubMed
  15. Bellmunt J, de Wit R, Fradet Y, Climent MA, Petrylak DP, Lee JL, Fong L, Necchi A, Sternberg CN, O'Donnell PH, Powles T, Plimack ER, Bajorin DF, Balar AV, Castellano D, Choueiri TK, Culine S, Gerritsen W, Gurney H, Quinn DI, Vuky J, Vogelzang NJ, Cristescu R, Lunceford J, Saadatpour A, Loboda A, Ma J, Rajasagi M, Godwin JL, Homet Moreno B, Grivas P. Putative Biomarkers of Clinical Benefit With Pembrolizumab in Advanced Urothelial Cancer: Results from the KEYNOTE-045 and KEYNOTE-052 Landmark Trials. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 05 13; 28(10):2050-2060.  View on PubMed
  16. Cabana MD, LeCroy MN, Menard-Livingston A, Rodgers CRR, McKean M, Caughey AB, Fong L, Lynch S, Wong A, Leong R, Boushey HA, Hilton JF. Effect of Early Infant Probiotic Supplementation on Eczema, Asthma, and Rhinitis at 7 Years of Age. Pediatrics. 2022 05 01; 149(5).  View on PubMed
  17. de Kouchkovsky I, Rao A, Carneiro BA, Zhang L, Lewis C, Phone A, Small EJ, Friedlander T, Fong L, Paris PL, Ryan CJ, Szmulewitz RZ, Aggarwal R. A Phase Ib/II Study of the CDK4/6 Inhibitor Ribociclib in Combination with Docetaxel plus Prednisone in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2022 04 14; 28(8):1531-1539.  View on PubMed
  18. Perez RK, Gordon MG, Subramaniam M, Kim MC, Hartoularos GC, Targ S, Sun Y, Ogorodnikov A, Bueno R, Lu A, Thompson M, Rappoport N, Dahl A, Lanata CM, Matloubian M, Maliskova L, Kwek SS, Li T, Slyper M, Waldman J, Dionne D, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Fong L, Dall'Era M, Balliu B, Regev A, Yazdany J, Criswell LA, Zaitlen N, Ye CJ. Single-cell RNA-seq reveals cell type-specific molecular and genetic associations to lupus. Science. 2022 04 08; 376(6589):eabf1970.  View on PubMed
  19. Natesan D, Zhang L, Martell HJ, Jindal T, Devine P, Stohr B, Espinosa-Mendez C, Grenert J, Van Ziffle J, Joseph N, Umetsu S, Onodera C, Turski M, Chan E, Desai A, Aggarwal R, Wong A, Porten S, Chou J, Friedlander T, Fong L, Small EJ, Sweet-Cordero A, Koshkin VS. APOBEC Mutational Signature and Tumor Mutational Burden as Predictors of Clinical Outcomes and Treatment Response in Patients With Advanced Urothelial Cancer. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:816706.  View on PubMed
  20. Augustin RC, Leone RD, Naing A, Fong L, Bao R, Luke JJ. Next steps for clinical translation of adenosine pathway inhibition in cancer immunotherapy. J Immunother Cancer. 2022 02; 10(2).  View on PubMed

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