🥳🎆 Kicking of 2026 with our work showing intra-tumoral bacteria 🦠 affect outcomes of Radiotherapy + anti-PD-L1 now out in @NatureCancer with sister paper by @nataliesilvermd! Even when trials "fail" – we can learn from them! nature.com/articles/s43018-0…. -- w/ @GeneCollector, @imrtlee, @TylerAlban1, @DrHaddadRobert, the Pfizer team and more! (1/N)

🔵 Phase 2 (n = 98)randomized trial of proton beam RT vs IMRT in postoperative unilateral #HeadAndNeckCancer ➡️ Clinician-graded grade ≥2 mucositis 7.4% vs 22.7% (P=.03), dysgeusia 9.3% vs 31.8% (P=.005). 🔗: oxford.ly/4Ay4H9V @IMRTLee | @xrtGenomics | @EChrisDee

Most RT-drug combos bet on synergy. Yet synergy is rare (most combos only additive). We're chasing a bar most of oncology can't clear. Our phase 1s don't even measure it. ProjectOptimus for #RadOnc & our editorial in @IJROBP w/Gustav, Ezra & @imrtlee - doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.202…

🧵 1/10 The arc: POLAR - MDF – TIE Pancreatic cancer is profoundly resistant to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Yet, POLAR (pembrolizumab plus olaparib) trial showed that a subset of patients, especially with HRD (gBRCA2/1m or gPALB2m) tumors, can achieve remarkably durable control. That led us to two questions: #1 👆🏼what makes these tumors immunogenic? #2 ✌️what makes that immunity actually work? 👑 #2. POLAR TIE @biorxivpreprint biorxiv.org/content/10.64898… #1. MDF biorxiv.org/content/10.64898… #0. POLAR @NatureMedicine nature.com/articles/s41591-0… #cancer #immunotherapy #PancreaticCancer #ICI #BRCA #HRD #3episodes @MSKCancerCenter @MSK_DeptOfMed @CpcrMsk @ldiaz1971 @debschrag @PanCAN @oncodaily @OncoDailyGI @OncoAlert @OncBrothers @brunolarvol

Starting a new thing at UNC with @BenjaminGVincen to figure out which tumor-specific pMHCs are actually on tumor cells & which vaccine platforms are more immunogenic. Lots of long-read WGS/scRNA, targeted mass spec, tumor-specific TCRs coming your way in the near future

Excited to share our newest work in Nature Reviews Cancer, “Viral mimicry escape as a necessary feature of malignant transformation,” in which we propose that escaping viral mimicry is a new hallmark of cancer.

Congratulations to the team at @MSKCancerCenter/@MSK_RadOnc! Especially @imrtlee for the tireless advocacy for this effective, practice-changing strategy to safely cure oropharyngeal cancer with minimal side effects. @seanmmcbride @xrtGenomics @ScottBratman @sueyom

The bolus versus weekly cisplatin debate rages on, but fortunately more data dropped this past week with the publication of the ConCERT trial (Concurrent Chemotherapy and External Radiation Therapy) comparing bolus with weekly schedules. Some thoughts on this trial and the cisplatin schedules below. academic.oup.com/jnci/articl…

Major congrats to @imrtlee and @xrtGenomics (amongst others) on this wonderful news! The Ph3 is enrolling rapidly. This RCT has more practice changing potential than any in which I've had the good fortune to participate. #radonc #hnscc #medtwitter onclive.com/view/fda-grants-…

Agree PET/CT invaluable in post-op setting! But #hncm has a far way to go in standardizing imaging unfortunately. We can't even make PET/CT SoC for defintive rx! Maybe 25-50% of country still doesnt even get this pre-treat? In 2026! @CJTsaiMDPhD @sueyom @imrtlee @DavidSherMD @seanmmcbride

RT @seanmmcbride: 100% agree, Dave. We’ve been doing routine PET/CT sim for over a decade in #hnscc. Yao Yu, one our stellar faculty, publ…

Must listen and must read!! See also accompanying commentary by Nadeem Riaz @xrtGenomics which should be out soon in @IJROBP #RedJournal #radonc #radbio @finn_corinne @sueyom

Thrilled to share our latest work is out today in @Nature ZFP36L2 orchestrates stress-adaptive plasticity in regeneration and cancer. nature.com/articles/s41586-0…

Excited to share that I've been awarded a K08 from @theNCI to uncover therapeutic vulnerabilities in ALT-positive cancers. This wouldn't have been possible without an incredible community of mentors and collaborators, including Agnel Sfeir, @quaidmorris, Britta Weigelt, @TabarViviane, @SteveMaronMD, @simonpowell213, @imrtlee, and @xrtGenomics, as well as the outstanding training environment at @MSKCancerCenter and @MSK_RadOnc. Looking forward to building a research program that leverages molecular biology, functional genomics, and computational approaches to understand the fundamental processes that drive malignant brain tumors—and how they can be targeted.

Oncology lost a hero recently and I missed it. A quarter of a century ago, Maura Gillison saw an epidemic coming. She was the first to see that HPV was causing a lot of head and neck cancer cases. At the time head-and-neck cancer -- we really mean cancer of the throat here -- was a disease people mostly got in old age because of risk factors like smoking and drinking, which damaged the cells that line the throat. But Gillison published a paper in 2000 showing that a quarter of head and neck tumors were positive for HPV. "She totally changed our understanding of the etiology of head and neck cancer and demonstrated that one person can make a difference," the oncologist Otis Brawley told @TheCancerLetter. This was not a small thing. Over the past two decades, HPV head and neck cancer went from being a blip to a common occurrence. CDC estimates now put the annual number of cases in the U.S. at 19,000 and growing. Changing sexual habits -- namely oral sex with more partners -- are the most likely reason. The condition affects men more than women. Recently we had news that the HPV vaccine has eliminated cervical cancer deaths in women aged 20 to 24 in the U.K. But the FDA label also indicates that the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, is approved to prevent head and neck cancer. That was something Gillison fought for. Here are some links for Maura Gillison.

Ken Rosenzweig @ken4englewood has been a mentor and educator to generations of radiation oncologists, including me. He is a great choice for @ASTRO_org Education Council. If you want someone dedicated to learning and high quality #radonc, read more about Ken here, and vote: astro.org/about-astro/govern… #radonc #meded #hcsm

One win away

Arguably the most boring step in genomics is the first one: normalization. Settled science. Scale + log. Move on. Except that here's been a huge blind spot in the field. And it matters for AIxBio. A 🧵about what I think may be one of the most important papers I've written. 1/

🧬 Can tumor genomics be used to personalize radiation dose? Grateful to present results from our phase II trial on dose de-escalated radiation therapy for ATM altered tumors at #ASCO2026 Great to see ☢️ #Radiation in the early-phase #PrecisionOncology space!

75% of patients received 30 Gy with FMISO PET based de-escalation for HPV-associated OPSCC. 30 Gy. Need the randomized data but hard to believe this won’t be the way. Incredible!

Thrilled to share our new paper out today in @NatureCancer: Tumor irradiation promotes antigen dressing of dendritic cells to enhance CAR T cell persistence and efficacy in lung metastases. A single dose of radiotherapy makes CAR T cells work against extensive metastatic lung cancer — even when the target antigen is also on normal tissues. nature.com/articles/s43018-0… 🧵 (1/14)