Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Medical Oncology
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Valsamo Anagnostou
Professional Titles
- Director, Thoracic Oncology Biorepository
- Co-Director, Lung Cancer Precision Medicine Center of Excellence
Primary Academic Title
Associate Professor of Oncology
Background
Dr. Anagnostou is an Associate Professor of Oncology in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She graduated from the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and received a PhD in cancer biology from the same institution. Dr. Anagnostou completed her internal medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and subsequently trained in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. She has established the Molecular Oncology laboratory that seeks to understand the genomic wiring of response and resistance to immunotherapy through integrative genomic, transcriptomic, single-cell and liquid biopsy analyses of tumor and immune evolution. She is also the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Biorepository at Johns Hopkins.
Her group has discovered novel mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy and is also developing liquid biopsy assays that capture the dynamics of response and may more accurately predict emergence of resistance to immunotherapy. Her work has provided the foundation for a molecular response-adaptive clinical trial, where therapeutic decisions are made not based on imaging but based on molecular responses derived from liquid biopsies.
Overall, Dr. Anagnostou focuses on studying the temporal and spatial order of the metastatic and immune cascade under the selective pressure of immunotherapy with the ultimate goal to translate this knowledge into “next-generation” immuno-oncology clinical trials and change the way oncologists select patients for these therapies.
Clinical Trial Keywords
Biomarker-driven immuno-oncology clinical trials
Research Interests
Cancer Genomics, Liquid Biopsies, Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma and Esophageal Cancer Translational Research, Multi-Omics Integrative Analyses
Lab Website
Molecular Oncology Laboratory
Our Molecular Oncology lab seeks to understand the genomic wiring of response and resistance to immunotherapy through integrative genomic, transcriptomic, single-cell and liquid biopsy analyses of tumor and immune evolution. Through comprehensive exome-wide sequence and genome-wide structural genomic analyses we have discovered that tumor cells evade immune surveillance by elimination of immunogenic mutations and associated neoantigens through chromosomal deletions. Additionally, we have developed non-invasive molecular platforms that incorporate ultra-sensitive measurements of circulating cell-free tumor DNA (ctDNA) to assess clonal dynamics during immunotherapy. These approaches have revealed distinct dynamic ctDNA and T cell repertoire patterns of clinical response and resistance that are superior to radiographic response assessments. Our work has provided the foundation for a molecular response-adaptive clinical trial, where therapeutic decisions are made not based on imaging but based on molecular responses derived from liquid biopsies.
Selected Publications
Anagnostou V, Smith KN, Forde PM, Niknafs N, Bhattacharya R, White J, Zhang T, Adleff V, Phallen J, Wali N, Hruban C, Guthrie VB, Rodgers K, Naidoo J, Kang H, Sharfman W, Georgiades C, Verde F, Illei P, Li QK, Gabrielson E, Brock MV, Zahnow CA, Baylin SB, Scharpf RB, Brahmer JR, Karchin R, Pardoll DM, Velculescu VE. Evolution of Neoantigen Landscape during Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2017 Mar;7(3):264-276
Anagnostou V, Forde PM, White JR, Niknafs N, Hruban C, Naidoo J, Marrone KA, Sivakumar IKA, Bruhm DC, Rosner S, Phallen J, Leal A, Adleff V, Smith KN, Cottrell TR, Rhymee L, Palsgrove DN, Hann CL, Levy B, Feliciano J, Georgiades C, Verde F, Illei P, Li QK, Gabrielson E, Brock MV, Isbell JM, Sauter JL, Taube J, Scharpf RB, Karchin R, Pardoll DM, Chaft JE, Hellmann MD, Brahmer JR, Velculescu VE. Dynamics of tumor and immune responses during immune checkpoint blockade in non-small cell lung cancer. Cancer Res. 2019 Mar 15;79(6):1214-1225.
Anagnostou V, Niknafs, N, Marrone K, Bruhm D, White J, Naidoo J, Hummelink K, MOnkhorst K, Lalezari F, Lanis M, Rosner S, Reuss J, Smith K, Adleff V, Rodgers K, Belcaid Z, Rhymee L, Levy B, Feliciano J, Hann C, Ettinger D, Georgiades C, Verde F, Illei P, Li Q, Baras A, Gabrielson E, Brock M, Karchin R, Pardoll D, Baylin S, Brahmer J, Scharpf R, Forde P, Velculescu V. Multimodal Genomic Features Predict Outcome of Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Nature Cancer, in press.
Danilova L*, Anagnostou V*, Caushi JX, Sidhom JW, Guo H, Chan HY, Suri P, Tam A, Zhang J, Asmar ME, Marrone KA, Naidoo J, Brahmer JR, Forde PM, Baras AS, Cope L, Velculescu VE, Pardoll DM, Housseau F, Smith KN. The Mutation-Associated Neoantigen Functional Expansion of Specific T Cells (MANAFEST) Assay: A Sensitive Platform for Monitoring Antitumor Immunity. Cancer Immunol Res. 2018 Aug;6(8):888-899. *co-first authors
Jones S, Anagnostou V, Lytle K, Parpart-Li S, Nesselbush M, Riley DR, Shukla M, Chesnick B, Kadan M, Papp P, Galens KG, Murphy D, Zhang T, Kann L, Sausen M, Angiuoli SV, Diaz Jr LA, Velculescu VE. Personalized Genomic Analyses for Cancer Mutation Discovery and Interpretation. Science Translational Medicine. 2015 Apr 15;7(283):283ra53
Patents
- Non-invasive Detection of Response to Immunotherapy, US serial number 62/657,600
- Mechanisms of Acquired Resistance to Immunotherapy, US serial number 16/312,152
- Matched white blood cell and cell-free DNA analyses for prediction of therapeutic response in patients with cancer, pending
- MANAFEST - A novel sensitive, specific, scalable and simple method to identify functional anti-tumor T cell responses, US serial number 62/407,820
- Immunohistochemical quantitation of tumor mTOR levels provides prognostic information on disease progression and outcome, US serial number 61/275,784
- Genomic Drivers of Response to Immunotherapy, US serial number 62/824,807
- An objective quantitative method to predict histological subtype in non-small cell lung cancer, US serial number 13/502,079
- A protein expression-based classifier for prediction of recurrence in lung adenocarcinomas, US serial number 61/463,715
Honors
- Swim Across America Translational Award, Swim Across America, 1/1/18
- AACR Next Generation Star Award, AACR, 1/1/17
- Best of AACR Journal Collection, most cited paper for Cancer Discovery in 2017, AACR, 1/1/17
- Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot Program Award, Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, 1/1/17
- Career Development Award for Lung Cancer Translational Research, LUNGevity Foundation, 1/1/17
- V Foundation Scholar, The V Foundation for Cancer Research, 1/1/17
- Richard C. Devereaux Award, IASLC/Prevent Cancer Foundation, 1/1/16
- McMillan Scholar, McMillan Pathway to Independence Award, 1/1/16
- Paul Carbone, MD Fellowship Award, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Research and Education Foundation, 1/1/15
- ASCO Merit Award, ASCO, 1/1/10
- Early Career Oncologists/Scientists Award, EORTC-NCI-ASCO, 1/1/06
- Scholarship for Academic Excellence, Greek National Institute of Scholarships, 1/1/99
Graduate Program Affiliations
Cellular and Molecular Medicine Program, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Memberships
- American Association for Cancer Research
- American Society of Clinical Oncology
Professional Activities
Johns Hopkins Molecular Tumor Board, Co-Leader
Locations
- Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
- 4940 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224
- phone: 410-550-0100
- fax: 410-550-0101
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital
- 1800 Orleans Street, Baltimore, MD 21287
- phone: 410-955-5000
- fax: 410-955-5001
Expertise
Education
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Fellowship, Medical Oncology, 2016Yale New Haven Health
Residency, Internal Medicine, 2013National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Graduate School, PhD, 2011National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Medical Education, MD, 2005Board Certifications
Medical Oncology
American Board of Internal Medicine, 2015Internal Medicine
American Board of Internal Medicine, 2014Insurance
- Aetna
- CareFirst
- Cigna
- First Health
- Geisinger Health Plan
- HealthSmart/Accel
- Humana
- Johns Hopkins Health Plans
- MultiPlan
- Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
- Point Comfort Underwriters
- Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
- UnitedHealthcare
- Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)