MELANOMA
Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD
UCLA School of Medicine/Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
A key architect of pembrolizumab and other novel therapies
Acceptance Speech
- Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, is professor of medicine, surgery, and molecular
and medical pharmacology, director of the Tumor Immunology Program
Area, and member of the Signal Transduction and Therapeutics
Program Area at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. His work
and accomplishments include:
- Served as principal investigator on pivotal investigations of the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda), which led the FDA to designate the drug as a breakthrough therapy and then approve the agent in September 2014
- Conducted what is believed to be the largest phase I clinical trial in the history of oncology at UCLA and 11 other sites, with more than 400 patients participating in the pembrolizumab trial
- Engaged in leading research on targeted therapies in melanoma, including the recent coBRIM trial of the combination of vemurafenib plus cobimetinib in patients with locally advanced or metastatic melanoma with a BRAF V600 mutation
- Focusing on combination studies of immunotherapy and targeted therapies for melanoma, and investigations of mechanisms of resistance and toxicities
- Received grants and awards to further his research, including a 2000 Career Development Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation to investigate immunotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma
- Serves as chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG and is currently a member of the Journal of Clinical Oncology editorial board
