Victor Vaz
Clinical FellowAbout
Research
Publications
2025
Factors Associated with Disease Progression after Discontinuation of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Immune-Related Toxicity in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.
Pecci F, Thummalapalli R, Alden S, Ricciuti B, Alessi J, Elkrief A, Rizvi H, Wang X, Jeng M, Egger J, Vaz V, Barrichello A, Lamberti G, Di Federico A, Santo V, Rossato de Almeida G, Gandhi M, Clark P, Nishino M, Johnson B, Hellmann M, Schoenfeld A, Awad M. Factors Associated with Disease Progression after Discontinuation of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Immune-Related Toxicity in Patients with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Clinical Cancer Research 2025, 31: 2413-2425. PMID: 40247431, DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-24-2990.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsImmune-related adverse eventsAdvanced non-small cell lung cancerNon-small cell lung cancerImmune checkpoint inhibitorsDiscontinuation of immune checkpoint inhibitorsDiscontinued immune checkpoint inhibitorFactors associated with disease progressionCell lung cancerLonger treatment durationTreatment durationCheckpoint inhibitorsNonsquamous histologyPD-L1Overall survivalLung cancerDisease progressionLong-term disease controlImmune-related toxicitiesProgression-free survivalResponse/partial responseICI treatmentImmunosuppressive agentsMedian durationClinicopathological dataDiscontinued treatmentTumor Immunophenotypic Correlates in Patients Aged 80 Years or Older With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Outcomes to First-Line Pembrolizumab in PD-L1 High (≥50%) Patients
Barrichello A, Elkrief A, Ricciuti B, Ganta T, Marron T, Wang X, Lotter W, Lindsay J, Santo V, Cortellini A, Sharma B, Felt K, Pfaff K, Lamberti G, Pecci F, Federico A, Makarem M, Gandhi M, Nguyen T, Haradon D, Vaz V, Johnson B, Debnath N, Wang Y, Kuang A, Saeed A, Radford M, Lovly C, Nebhan C, Pinato D, Rodig S, Schoenfeld A, Awad M, Alessi J, Naqash A. Tumor Immunophenotypic Correlates in Patients Aged 80 Years or Older With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Outcomes to First-Line Pembrolizumab in PD-L1 High (≥50%) Patients. Clinical Lung Cancer 2025, 26: 288-298.e8. PMID: 40021433, DOI: 10.1016/j.cllc.2025.01.014.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchMeSH KeywordsAgedAged, 80 and overAntibodies, Monoclonal, HumanizedAntineoplastic Agents, ImmunologicalB7-H1 AntigenBiomarkers, TumorCarcinoma, Non-Small-Cell LungFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansImmunophenotypingLung NeoplasmsMaleMiddle AgedPrognosisRetrospective StudiesSurvival RateTumor MicroenvironmentConceptsNon-small cell lung cancerFirst-line pembrolizumabAdvanced non-small cell lung cancerPD-L1-highTumor proportion scoreSecond-line therapyCell lung cancerPD-L1Tumor microenvironmentCohort CCohort BCohort AYounger patientsNon-smallLung cancerPD-L1 tumor proportion scoreMedian progression-free survivalNon-small cell lung cancer cohortsShorter median overall survivalMedian overall survivalProgression-free survivalImmune checkpoint proteinsImmune cell subsetsIntratumoral FOXP3Pembrolizumab efficacy
2024
Response to Crizotinib After Entrectinib Resistance in ROS1-Rearranged, MET-Amplified Lung Adenocarcinoma
Vaz V, Gandhi M, Ricciuti B, Alessi J, Elkrief A, Ladanyi M, Vanderbilt C, Pecci F, Aldea M, Barrichello A, Saini A, Sholl L, Sands J, Awad M. Response to Crizotinib After Entrectinib Resistance in ROS1-Rearranged, MET-Amplified Lung Adenocarcinoma. JCO Precision Oncology 2024, 8: e2400394. PMID: 39374479, DOI: 10.1200/po-24-00394.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchIntrapatient variation in PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden and the impact on outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer
Di Federico A, Alden S, Smithy J, Ricciuti B, Alessi J, Wang X, Pecci F, Lamberti G, Gandhi M, Vaz V, Spurr L, Sholl L, Pfaff K, Rodig S, Li Y, Cherniack A, Nishino M, Johnson B, Awad M. Intrapatient variation in PD-L1 expression and tumor mutational burden and the impact on outcomes to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Annals Of Oncology 2024, 35: 902-913. PMID: 38950679, DOI: 10.1016/j.annonc.2024.06.014.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchNon-small cell lung cancerImmune checkpoint inhibitorsTumor mutational burdenProgression-free survivalTumor proportion scorePD-L1 < 1%PD-L1 tumor proportion scoreTMB assessmentPD-L1Cell lung cancerMutational burdenLung cancerImmune checkpoint inhibitor therapyTumor mutation burden variationsPD-L1 assessmentCheckpoint inhibitor therapyPD-L1 expressionCheckpoint inhibitorsICI initiationInhibitor therapyICI outcomesPredictive biomarkersProportion scoreIntrapatient variationPatientsActivating point mutations in the MET kinase domain represent a unique molecular subset of lung cancer and other malignancies targetable with MET inhibitors
Pecci F, Nakazawa S, Ricciuti B, Harada G, Lee J, Alessi J, Barrichello A, Vaz V, Lamberti G, Di Federico A, Gandhi M, Gazgalis D, Feng W, Jiang J, Baldacci S, Locquet M, Gottlieb F, Chen M, Lee E, Haradon D, Smokovich A, Voligny E, Nguyen T, Goel V, Zimmerman Z, Atwal S, Wang X, Bahcall M, Heist R, Iqbal S, Gandhi N, Elliott A, Vanderwalde A, C. P, Halmos B, Liu S, Che J, Schrock A, Drilon A, Jänne P, Awad M. Activating point mutations in the MET kinase domain represent a unique molecular subset of lung cancer and other malignancies targetable with MET inhibitors. Cancer Discovery 2024, 14: 1440-1456. PMID: 38564707, PMCID: PMC11294820, DOI: 10.1158/2159-8290.cd-23-1217.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsActivating point mutationsMET inhibitorsTyrosine kinase domainTKD mutationsOncogenic driversMolecular subsets of lung cancerMET tyrosine kinase inhibitorsTyrosine kinase domain mutationsPapillary renal cell carcinomaSubsets of lung cancerComprehensive genomic profilingPoint mutationsKinase domain mutationsTyrosine kinase inhibitorsRenal cell carcinomaSubsets of cancersSensitive to type IPartial responseCell carcinomaMET kinase domainPreclinical modelsLung cancerKinase inhibitorsGenomic profilingMultiple malignanciesGenomic and Immunophenotypic Landscape of Acquired Resistance to PD-(L)1 Blockade in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer
Ricciuti B, Lamberti G, Puchala S, Mahadevan N, Lin J, Alessi J, Chowdhury A, Li Y, Wang X, Spurr L, Pecci F, Di Federico A, Venkatraman D, Barrichello A, Gandhi M, Vaz V, Pangilinan A, Haradon D, Lee E, Gupta H, Pfaff K, Welsh E, Nishino M, Cherniack A, Johnson B, Weirather J, Dryg I, Rodig S, Sholl L, Sorger P, Santagata S, Umeton R, Awad M. Genomic and Immunophenotypic Landscape of Acquired Resistance to PD-(L)1 Blockade in Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Journal Of Clinical Oncology 2024, 42: 1311-1321. PMID: 38207230, PMCID: PMC11095860, DOI: 10.1200/jco.23.00580.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsNon-small-cell lung cancerImmune checkpoint inhibitorsCohort of patientsAcquired ResistanceTargeted therapyT cellsNon-small-cell lung cancer treated with immune checkpoint inhibitorsCD8+ PD-1+ T cellsCD8a+ T cellsLung cancerPD-1+ T cellsGenomic profilingAssessment of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytesHLA class I expressionControl cohort of patientsPD-(L)1 blockadeTumor-infiltrating lymphocytesComprehensive genomic profilingClass I expressionTumor genomic profilingNon-small-cellDana-Farber Cancer InstituteTiming of ARComprehensive tumor genomic profilingLoss-of-function mutations
2023
Powassan Virus Infections: A Systematic Review of Published Cases
Kakoullis L, Vaz V, Kaur D, Kakoulli S, Panos G, Chen L, Behlau I. Powassan Virus Infections: A Systematic Review of Published Cases. Tropical Medicine And Infectious Disease 2023, 8: 508. PMID: 38133440, PMCID: PMC10747444, DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed8120508.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchPowassan virus infectionPediatric casesSystematic reviewRespiratory distressSystematic review of published casesVirus infectionReview of published casesCranial nerve involvementPersistent neurological deficitsDevelopment of ataxiaDevelopment of paralysisCases of encephalitisNerve involvementClinical manifestationsNeurological deficitsPublished casesPediatric populationDiagnostic findingsNeurotropic arbovirusesPRISMA guidelinesMortality rateSpeech disordersComplicationsMortalityCognitive deficitsMA20.06 Association of TTF-1 Expression with Outcomes to Immunotherapy and KRAS G12C Inhibition in Lung Adenocarcinoma
Di Federico A, Ricciuti B, Alessi J, Pecci F, Lamberti G, Gandhi M, Vaz V, Voligny E, Nguyen T, Haradon D, Sholl L, Nishino M, Cooper A, Digumarthy S, Janne P, Heist R, Johnson B, Luo J, Awad M. MA20.06 Association of TTF-1 Expression with Outcomes to Immunotherapy and KRAS G12C Inhibition in Lung Adenocarcinoma. Journal Of Thoracic Oncology 2023, 18: s175. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtho.2023.09.264.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchP2.07-03 Factors Associated with Disease Progression after Discontinuation of Immunotherapy for Immune-Related Toxicity in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
Pecci F, Thummalapalli R, Alden S, Ricciuti B, Alessi J, Elkrief A, Rizvi H, Wang X, Egger J, Vaz V, Barrichello A, Lamberti G, Di Federico A, Gandhi M, Nishino M, Johnson B, Hellmann M, Schoenfeld A, Awad M. P2.07-03 Factors Associated with Disease Progression after Discontinuation of Immunotherapy for Immune-Related Toxicity in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Journal Of Thoracic Oncology 2023, 18: s323-s324. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtho.2023.09.561.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchImpact of Aneuploidy and Chromosome 9p Loss on Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Efficacy in NSCLC
Alessi J, Wang X, Elkrief A, Ricciuti B, Li Y, Gupta H, Spurr L, Rizvi H, Luo J, Pecci F, Lamberti G, Recondo G, Venkatraman D, Di Federico A, Gandhi M, Vaz V, Nishino M, Sholl L, Cherniack A, Ladanyi M, Price A, Richards A, Donoghue M, Lindsay J, Sharma B, Turner M, Pfaff K, Felt K, Rodig S, Lin X, Meyerson M, Johnson B, Christiani D, Schoenfeld A, Awad M. Impact of Aneuploidy and Chromosome 9p Loss on Tumor Immune Microenvironment and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Efficacy in NSCLC. Journal Of Thoracic Oncology 2023, 18: 1524-1537. PMID: 37247843, PMCID: PMC10913104, DOI: 10.1016/j.jtho.2023.05.019.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsChromosome 9p lossImmune checkpoint inhibitorsProgrammed death-ligand 1Tumor proportion scoreTumor immune microenvironmentShorter mPFSImmune microenvironmentPD-L1 tumor proportion scoreTreated with immune checkpoint inhibitorsProgrammed cell death protein 1Associated with lower ORRHigher PD-L1 expressionMedian progression-free survivalImmune checkpoint inhibitor efficacyCell death protein 1Median overall survivalDeath-ligand 1PD-L1 expressionProgression-free survivalCheckpoint inhibitor efficacyTumor mutational burdenCytotoxic immune cellsPotential biomarkersChromosome 1q gainCopy number alterations