General Description

Immune-based therapies have demonstrated clear promise in the treatment of a number of human malignancies. In this project, Dr. Kulke and his team will evaluate a large cohort of neuroendocrine tumors to better understand how these tumors interact with the immune system and to assess their potential to respond to immune therapies. Kulke will systematically evaluate the immune microenvironment of neuroendocrine tumors in a large and highly annotated biospecimen database that comprises a diverse set of neuroendocrine tumors to assess expression of key immune receptors in tumor and associated stromal cells. This project could identify new ideas for treating neuroendocrine tumors based on knowledge about how they interact with the immune system. Dr. Kulke’s findings will shed light on the potential for neuroendocrine tumors to respond to currently available immune checkpoint inhibitors, and inform future strategies for immunotherapy in neuroendocrine tumors.

Publications

da Silva A, Bowden M, Zhang S, Masugi Y, Thorner AR, Herbert ZT, Zhou CW, Brais L, Chan JA, Hodi FS, Rodig S, Ogino S, Kulke MH. Characterization of the Neuroendocrine Tumor Immune Microenvironment. Pancreas. 2018 Oct;47(9):1123-1129. doi: 10.1097/MPA.0000000000001150.

Ter‐Minassian, Zhang S, Brooks NV,  Brais LK, Chan JA, Christiani DC, LinX, Gabriel S, Dinet J, Kulke MH. Association Between Tumor Progression Endpoints and Overall Survival in Patients with Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors. Oncologist. 2017 Feb; 22(2): 165–172. Published online 2017 Feb 8. doi: 10.1634/theoncologist.20160175.