Head
Division of Solid Tumor Oncology;
Grayer Family Chair
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, New York
For pioneering discoveries that have transformed cancer treatment through biomarker-driven immunotherapy, including demonstrating that tumors with mismatch repair deficiency and microsatellite instability are highly responsive to immune checkpoint blockade. Dr. Diaz has also advanced the use of circulating tumor DNA to detect minimal residual disease and led clinical trials of PD-1 blockade in mismatch repair-deficient cancers, including rectal cancer studies showing complete responses with immunotherapy alone. His work established defective DNA repair as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response and enabled the first tissue-agnostic approval of a cancer therapy based on a molecular signature.
The AACR and Bristol-Myers Squibb established the AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research in 1996 to recognize outstanding achievements in clinical cancer research. The award honors Dr. Joseph H. Burchenal, honorary member and past president of the AACR, and a major figure in clinical cancer research. To learn more, please visit the press release.
View Dr. Diaz’s Fellows of the AACR Academy page.
View Past Recipients.