Research Summary

Dr. Katy K. Tsai is a medical oncologist and clinical researcher who specializes in treating advanced melanoma and other non-melanoma skin cancers, such as squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma.

Dr. Tsai graduated with a degree in comparative literature from Brown University before earning her medical degree from Brown. She completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a fellowship in medical oncology at UCSF, where she served as chief fellow, before joining UCSF faculty in the Melanoma & Skin Cancer Program.

Dr. Tsai is deeply committed to finding the best possible treatment options for her patients. As Site Committee Chair for her program, she works closely with her medical oncology, surgical oncology, and dermatology/dermatopathology colleagues to develop novel clinical trial options, and is also responsible for the curation of the Melanoma & Skin Cancer Program's clinical trial portfolio. She has a long-standing research interest in melanoma survivorship and in understanding the pathophysiology and best treatment practices for acute and chronic immune-related adverse events (irAEs).

Education

Brown University, BA, 2006, Comparative Literature
Brown University, MD, 2010, Medicine
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Resident, 2013, Internal Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, Fellow, 2016, Medical Oncology

Honors & Awards

  • 2010
    Research Honors in Urogynecology, Brown University, Providence, RI
  • 2013
    Chairman's Award in Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
  • 2014
    ASCO/AACR Workshop: Methods in Clinical Cancer Research
  • 2015
    Travel Award for Meritorious Abstract, American Society of Clinical Oncology 2015 Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL
  • 2016
    Young Investigator Travel Award, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer 2016 Annual Meeting, National Harbor, MD

Selected Publications

  1. Vasudevan HN, Susko MS, Ma L, Nakamura JL, Raleigh DR, Boreta L, Fogh S, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW, Tsai KK, Sneed PK, Braunstein SE. Mutational Status and Clinical Outcomes Following Systemic Therapy with or without Focal Radiation for Resected Melanoma Brain Metastases. World Neurosurg. 2023 Feb; 170:e514-e519.  View on PubMed
  2. Smith JL, Menzies AM, Cohen JV, Mut-Lloret M, Ozgun A, Spain L, Park J, Quach HT, Pallan L, McQuade J, Feng S, Sandhu S, Atkinson V, Tsai K, Long GV, Larkin J, Eroglu Z, Johnson DB, Sullivan R, Herkes GK, Henderson A, Carlino MS. Neurological adverse effects associated with anti-PD1 antibodies alone or in combination with ipilimumab: a multicenter case series. Melanoma Res. 2022 12 01; 32(6):451-459.  View on PubMed
  3. Friedman CF, Spencer C, Cabanski CR, Panageas KS, Wells DK, Ribas A, Tawbi H, Tsai K, Postow M, Shoushtari A, Chapman P, Karakunnel J, Bucktrout S, Gherardini P, Hollmann TJ, Chen RO, Callahan M, LaVallee T, Ibrahim R, Wolchok J. Ipilimumab alone or in combination with nivolumab in patients with advanced melanoma who have progressed or relapsed on PD-1 blockade: clinical outcomes and translational biomarker analyses. J Immunother Cancer. 2022 01; 10(1).  View on PubMed
  4. Hepner A, Atkinson VG, Larkin J, Burrell RA, Carlino MS, Johnson DB, Zimmer L, Tsai KK, Klein O, Lo SN, Haydon A, Bhave P, Lyle M, Pallan L, Pires da Silva I, Gerard C, Michielin O, Long GV, Menzies AM. Re-induction ipilimumab following acquired resistance to combination ipilimumab and anti-PD-1 therapy. Eur J Cancer. 2021 08; 153:213-222.  View on PubMed
  5. Baik AH, Oluwole OO, Johnson DB, Shah N, Salem JE, Tsai KK, Moslehi JJ. Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Toxicities Associated With Immunotherapies. Circ Res. 2021 05 28; 128(11):1780-1801.  View on PubMed
  6. Miaskowski C, Paul SM, Snowberg K, Abbott M, Borno HT, Chang SM, Chen LM, Cohen B, Cooper BA, Hammer MJ, Kenfield SA, Kober KM, Laffan A, Levine JD, Pozzar R, Rhoads K, Tsai KK, Van Blarigan EL, Van Loon K. Loneliness and symptom burden in oncology patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cancer. 2021 09 01; 127(17):3246-3253.  View on PubMed
  7. Pauken KE, Shahid O, Lagattuta KA, Mahuron KM, Luber JM, Lowe MM, Huang L, Delaney C, Long JM, Fung ME, Newcomer K, Tsai KK, Chow M, Guinn S, Kuchroo JR, Burke KP, Schenkel JM, Rosenblum MD, Daud AI, Sharpe AH, Singer M. Single-cell analyses identify circulating anti-tumor CD8 T cells and markers for their enrichment. J Exp Med. 2021 04 05; 218(4).  View on PubMed
  8. Baik AH, Tsai KK, Oh DY, Aras MA. Mechanisms and clinical manifestations of cardiovascular toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Clin Sci (Lond). 2021 03 12; 135(5):703-724.  View on PubMed
  9. Silverstein J, Post AL, Chien AJ, Olin R, Tsai KK, Ngo Z, Van Loon K. Multidisciplinary Management of Cancer During Pregnancy. JCO Oncol Pract. 2020 09; 16(9):545-557.  View on PubMed
  10. Miaskowski C, Paul SM, Snowberg K, Abbott M, Borno H, Chang S, Chen LM, Cohen B, Cooper BA, Hammer MJ, Kenfield SA, Laffan A, Levine JD, Pozzar R, Tsai KK, Van Blarigan EL, Van Loon K. Oncology patients' perceptions of and experiences with COVID-19. Support Care Cancer. 2021 Apr; 29(4):1941-1950.  View on PubMed
  11. Levine LS, Mahuron KM, Tsai KK, Wu C, Mattis DM, Pauli ML, Oglesby A, Lee JC, Spitzer MH, Krummel MF, Algazi AP, Rosenblum MD, Alvarado M, Daud AI. Tumor Immune Profiling-Based Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy for Locally Advanced Melanoma. Ann Surg Oncol. 2020 Oct; 27(11):4122-4130.  View on PubMed
  12. Najjar YG, Navrazhina K, Ding F, Bhatia R, Tsai K, Abbate K, Durden B, Eroglu Z, Bhatia S, Park S, Chowdhary A, Chandra S, Kennedy J, Puzanov I, Ernstoff M, Vachhani P, Drabick J, Singh A, Xu T, Yang J, Carvajal R, Manson D, Kirkwood JM, Cohen J, Sullivan R, Johnson D, Funchain P, Shoushtari A. Ipilimumab plus nivolumab for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma: a multicenter, retrospective study. J Immunother Cancer. 2020 06; 8(1).  View on PubMed
  13. Algazi AP, Twitty CG, Tsai KK, Le M, Pierce R, Browning E, Hermiz R, Canton DA, Bannavong D, Oglesby A, Francisco M, Fong L, Pittet MJ, Arlauckas SP, Garris C, Levine LP, Bifulco C, Ballesteros-Merino C, Bhatia S, Gargosky S, Andtbacka RHI, Fox BA, Rosenblum MD, Daud AI. Phase II Trial of IL-12 Plasmid Transfection and PD-1 Blockade in Immunologically Quiescent Melanoma. Clin Cancer Res. 2020 06 15; 26(12):2827-2837.  View on PubMed
  14. Seth R, Messersmith H, Kaur V, Kirkwood JM, Kudchadkar R, McQuade JL, Provenzano A, Swami U, Weber J, Alluri KC, Agarwala S, Ascierto PA, Atkins MB, Davis N, Ernstoff MS, Faries MB, Gold JS, Guild S, Gyorki DE, Khushalani NI, Meyers MO, Robert C, Santinami M, Sehdev A, Sondak VK, Spurrier G, Tsai KK, van Akkooi A, Funchain P. Systemic Therapy for Melanoma: ASCO Guideline. J Clin Oncol. 2020 11 20; 38(33):3947-3970.  View on PubMed
  15. Algazi A, Bhatia S, Agarwala S, Molina M, Lewis K, Faries M, Fong L, Levine LP, Franco M, Oglesby A, Ballesteros-Merino C, Bifulco CB, Fox BA, Bannavong D, Talia R, Browning E, Le MH, Pierce RH, Gargosky S, Tsai KK, Twitty C, Daud AI. Intratumoral delivery of tavokinogene telseplasmid yields systemic immune responses in metastatic melanoma patients. Ann Oncol. 2020 04; 31(4):532-540.  View on PubMed
  16. Greaney SK, Algazi AP, Tsai KK, Takamura KT, Chen L, Twitty CG, Zhang L, Paciorek A, Pierce RH, Le MH, Daud AI, Fong L. Intratumoral Plasmid IL12 Electroporation Therapy in Patients with Advanced Melanoma Induces Systemic and Intratumoral T-cell Responses. Cancer Immunol Res. 2020 02; 8(2):246-254.  View on PubMed
  17. Tsai KK, Khurana N, McCalmont T, Daud A, Bastian B, Yeh I. PTCH1 Mutation in a Patient With Metastatic Undifferentiated Carcinoma With Clear Cell Change. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2019 07 01; 17(7):778-783.  View on PubMed
  18. Fitzgerald K, Tsai KK. Systemic therapy for advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Semin Cutan Med Surg. 2019 Mar 01; 38(1):E67-E74.  View on PubMed
  19. Pai CS, Huang JT, Lu X, Simons DM, Park C, Chang A, Tamaki W, Liu E, Roybal KT, Seagal J, Chen M, Hagihara K, Wei XX, DuPage M, Kwek SS, Oh DY, Daud A, Tsai KK, Wu C, Zhang L, Fasso M, Sachidanandam R, Jayaprakash A, Lin I, Casbon AJ, Kinsbury GA, Fong L. Clonal Deletion of Tumor-Specific T Cells by Interferon-γ Confers Therapeutic Resistance to Combination Immune Checkpoint Blockade. Immunity. 2019 02 19; 50(2):477-492.e8.  View on PubMed
  20. Tsai KK, Bollin KB, Patel SP. Obstacles to improving outcomes in the treatment of uveal melanoma. Cancer. 2018 07 01; 124(13):2693-2703.  View on PubMed

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