Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center's 2022 Patient Symposium

Dr. Atkins began his career at Tufts before moving to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and being appointed Professor at Harvard Medical School where he served as Deputy Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and leader of the Biologic Therapy and Cutaneous Oncology Programs, Co-PI of the Harvard Skin Cancer SPORE, founding leader of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer Program and Director of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer SPORE.  In 2012, he moved to Georgetown where he is Deputy Director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC and William Scholl Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center. He leads the Lombardi Immunotherapy/Heme Working Group and Chairs the IIT Steering Committee. His current research focuses on immunotherapy for melanoma and RCC and biomarkers for response and toxicity. He has published over 500 articles (H-Index 134) and 5 books and has lectured extensively on these topics.  He is past president of SITC, and past member of the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Council and the ASCO Nominating Committee. Currently he co-Chairs the Melanoma Research Foundation Scientific Advisory Council and Chairs the Melanoma Research Alliance Clinical Advisory Board. He is a 2021 recipient of the OncLive Giant in Cancer Care Award for Melanoma and in 2022 received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Immunotherapy from SITC. He was recently inducted into SITC’s 2023 Class of Fellows of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology (FAIO) and in 2024 became a Fellow of ASCO (FASCO).

Geoffrey T. Gibney, MD, is a co-leader of the Melanoma Disease Group at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and MedStar Cancer Network, and a member of the Developmental Therapeutics (Phase I) program. He is well known for treating patients with advanced non-melanoma skin cancers (basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and merkel cell carcinoma), renal cell carcinoma and other rare skin cancers. Dr. Gibney is board certified in both internal medicine and medical oncology. He was previously a faculty member in the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.

Dr. Gibney is recognized for his advanced melanoma research. He is currently involved in several clinical trials focused on developing novel immunotherapy and targeted therapy strategies. Past clinical research has included the study of anti-PD-1 therapy to prevent recurrences of resected melanoma, combination immunotherapies (such as ipilimumab plus the novel IDO1 inhibitor, epacadostat) to enhance the clinical benefit in advanced melanoma patients and combination BRAF targeted therapy to overcome drug resistance.

His current goal is to develop biomarker-driven approaches for personalized therapeutic strategies in patients with advanced malignancies.

Dr. Suthee Rapisuwon is a leading medical oncologist specializing in melanoma, with a particular focus on uveal melanoma. Dr. Rapisuwon is leading an investigator initiated clinical trial, the HCRN-MEL17-309 study, a Phase II multi-center trial investigating the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab in patients with high-risk uveal melanoma. This research aims to enhance therapeutic strategies and improve patient outcomes for this aggressive form of eye cancer. Dr. Rapisuwon has recently presented significant findings at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, contributing to the advancement of melanoma treatment and patient care.