John Wrangle, M.D.

My research is focused on developing novel immunotherapies for non-small cell lung cancer. Immunotherapy has become a mainstay of treatment for non-small cell lung cancer’s (NSCLC), yet PD-1/PD-L1 directed immune checkpoint blockade alone or in combination with chemotherapy fails to yield durable responses in the large majority of treated patients. Our understanding of immunotherapy’s success or failure on an individual basis must evolve rapidly to extend benefit to a great proportion of treated patients. We were the first to publish (Lancet Oncology, Wrangle et al., April 2018) and the first to demonstrate tumor responses to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade combined with a cytokine therapy, in our case the IL-15 common gamma chain agonist ALT-803. As part of this study, we conducted extensive immune correlative analyses particularly focused on T cells and innate immunity. My laboratory continues to focus on biomarker analysis from this and follow on trials as well as the development of other novel immunotherapeutic approaches to lung cancer.