Mark Yarchoan, MD
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, Maryland
Title: "Immunotherapy for Liver Cancer: Targeting Neoantigens in HCC and an “Untargetable” Driver Oncogene in Fibrolamellar HCC.”
Description: Fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) is driven by the recurrent DNAJB1–PRKACA fusion, a lineage-defining oncogenic driver that has remained inaccessible to conventional small-molecule approaches. This talk will discuss how a genetically simple but biologically “undruggable” fusion can instead be targeted through immunotherapy. I will review our translational program spanning fusion-directed peptide vaccine strategies, mechanisms of metabolic resistance linked to fusion-driven glutamine dependence, and the development of next-generation adoptive cellular therapies targeting the fusion neoantigen. Together, these studies illustrate a bench-to-bedside framework for converting an undruggable oncogenic driver into a therapeutically actionable immune target, with implications that extend beyond FLC to other fusion-driven cancers
Hosts:
Ruth He, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine, Hematology & Oncology
Program: Precision Oncology and Systems Biology (POSB)
Rob Schwabe, MD
Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine, Digestive & Liver Disorders
Program: Tumor Biology and Microenvironment (TBM)
