Evan Lipson, MD

Primary Academic Title

Associate Professor of Oncology

Background

Centers and Institutes

Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

X (Twitter)

https://www.twitter.com/evanlipson

Clinical Trials Summary

View Dr. Lipson's current research trials at Sibley Memorial Hospital here.

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

• Dr. Lipson on the Current Treatment Landscape of Basal Cell Carcinoma, OncLive, (June 29, 2022)   

  Evan Lipson, MD, on Nivolumab Plus Relatlimab for Advanced Melanoma, MedPage Today, (July 14, 2022)

  ASCO 2022 Nivo + Rela vs. Nivo in Previously Untreated Metastatic/Unresectable Melanoma: OS and ORR by Key Subgroups From the RELATIVITY-047, VuMedi, (July 14, 2022)

  Nivolumab Plus Relatlimab Induces Durable Responses in Advanced Melanoma, OncLive (March 16, 2023)

Research Interests

Immunotherapy, Melanoma

Research Summary

Dr. Lipson is an internationally-recognized cutaneous oncology and clinical immunotherapy specialist at Johns Hopkins.  He received his medical degree in 2005 from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where he graduated with distinction in research.  He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and completed a Medical Oncology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Dr. Lipson's primary research interest is in translational clinical trials for patients with melanoma and other skin cancers. As a member of the Johns Hopkins Melanoma and Cancer Immunology Programs, he focuses on evaluating novel therapies for patients with high-risk or advanced disease. Dr. Lipson’s publications include the first reports of organ transplant recipients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced cancer (J Clin Onc 2014, New Engl J Med 2016), and the first description of kidney retransplantation performed after anti–PD-1–related allograft rejection (Amer J Transplant 2020). Based on his published work, Dr. Lipson initiated the first prospective clinical trial testing a novel combination of immune-based therapies for kidney transplant recipients with advanced selected cancers (Schenk et al., ASCO Annual Meeting 2022).

Dr. Lipson is a leader in the clinical development of relatlimab, an antibody blocking the LAG-3 immune checkpoint. He is the Principal Investigator of a phase 2 trial testing combination immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy—including anti-LAG-3—for patients with advanced basal cell carcinoma. In June 2021, Dr. Lipson presented findings from the first phase 3 study establishing the LAG-3 pathway as the third immune checkpoint pathway in history, after CTLA-4 and PD-1, for which blockade has clinical benefit. (Lipson et al., ASCO Annual Meeting) Based on results from this study, the FDA approved relatlimab+nivolumab in March 2022.

In addition to his research activities, Dr. Lipson is an educator in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Many of his lectures focus on the management of immune-mediated drug toxicities associated with novel cancer drugs. Dr. Lipson conducts regular clinical practices in Baltimore, Maryland and at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. as part of the multidisciplinary Melanoma Program at Johns Hopkins.

PubMed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1HsweBDUo-0Qx/bibliography/public/

Selected Publications

• Lipson EJ, Bagnasco SM, Moore J Jr, Jang S, Patel MJ, Zachary AA, Pardoll DM, Taube JM, Drake CG. Tumor Regression and Allograft Rejection after Administration of Anti-PD-1. N Engl J Med. 2016 Mar 3;374(9):896-8

• Lipson EJ, Lilo MT, Ogurtsova A, Esandrio J, Xu H, Brothers P, Schollenberger M, Sharfman WH, Taube JM. Basal cell carcinoma: PD-L1/PD-1 checkpoint expression and tumor regression after PD-1 blockade. J Immunother Cancer. 2017 Mar 21;5:23. doi: 10.1186/s40425-017-0228-3. eCollection 2017

• Gross ND, Miller DM, Khushalani NI, Divi V, Ruiz ES, Lipson EJ, Meier F, Su YB, Swiecicki PL, Atlas J, Geiger JL, Hauschild A, Choe JH, Hughes BGM, Schadendorf D, Patel VA, Homsi J, Taube JM, Lim AM, Ferrarotto R, Kaufman HL, Seebach F, Lowy I, Yoo SY, Mathias M, Fenech K, Han H, Fury MG, Rischin D. Neoadjuvant Cemiplimab for Stage II to IV Cutaneous Squamous-Cell Carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2022 Oct 27;387(17):1557-1568

• Nghiem P, Bhatia S, Lipson EJ, Sharfman WH, Kudchadkar RR, Brohl AS, Friedlander PA, Daud A, Kluger HM, Reddy SA, Boulmay BC, Riker A, Burgess MA, Hanks BA, Olencki T, Kendra K, Church C, Akaike T, Ramchurren N, Shinohara MM, Salim B, Taube JM, Jensen E, Kalabis M, Fling SP, Homet Moreno B, Sharon E, Cheever MA, Topalian SL. Three-year survival, correlates and salvage therapies in patients receiving first-line pembrolizumab for advanced Merkel cell carcinoma. J Immunother Cancer. 2021 Apr;9(4):e002478

• Tawbi HA, Schadendorf D, Lipson EJ, Ascierto PA, Matamala L, Castillo Gutiérrez E, Rutkowski P, Gogas HJ, Lao CD, De Menezes JJ, Dalle S, Arance A, Grob JJ, Srivastava S, Abaskharoun M, Hamilton M, Keidel S, Simonsen KL, Sobiesk AM, Li B, Hodi FS, Long GV; RELATIVITY-047 Investigators. Relatlimab and Nivolumab versus Nivolumab in Untreated Advanced Melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2022 Jan 6;386(1):24-34

Honors

• Eugene "Grouch" Collins Memorial Scholarship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Los Angeles Hillel Medical Scholarship, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism Honor Society, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• Dr. John J. Bookman Memorial Prize in Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Memberships

• American Society for Clinical Oncology,

  Member

• Society for Melanoma Research,

  Member

• Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer,

  Member

• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group,

  Member

• International immunosuppression & Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative
• European Society for Medical Oncology