Department of Immunology

Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD

Paul Nghiem

Professor, Department of Dermatology
Adjunct Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology
Adjunct Professor, Department of Oral Health Sciences
Adjunct Professor, Department of Immunology

Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD, (he/him/his) is a board certified physician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Founding Chair of the UW Department of Dermatology, the George F. Odland Endowed Chair in Dermatology, and a UW professor of Medicine and Dermatology and an adjunct professor in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology as well as Oral Health Sciences. Dr. Nghiem oversees the Nghiem Lab, a laboratory focused on the biology of skin cancer and the Merkel Cell Carcinoma Collaborative (MC3) Institute. Dr. Nghiem earned his MD and PhD at Stanford. His clinical and research interests include dermatology, Merkel cell carcinoma, melanoma, graft versus host disease and complex skin cancer management in a multidisciplinary team.

 

CONTACT

206-221-4594
850 Republican St.
Brotman Building D242
Seattle, WA 98109

RESEARCH AREAS

Cancer Immunotherapy
Tumor Immunobiology
Adaptive Immune Responses

LAB MEMBERS

Nghiem Lab Members

LAB

ACCEPTING NEW STUDENTS: YES

Lab Website

PUBMED

PubMed Link

RESEARCH

In 2010, our team found that the immune system plays a very important role in determining how well MCC patients do. Specifically, patients with a robust immune response (CD8 T cells) within the tumor were far more likely to beat their cancer after standard treatment. Following this, we published data showing that the viral antigens found in the 80% of MCC tumors driven by the Merkel cell polyomavirus, are targeted by CD4 and CD8 T cells. Based on these findings, our lab has worked to develop immune-based therapies to effectively treat MCC. In 2017, our team led, immune therapy replaced chemotherapy as the standard of care for MCC patients that cannot be treated with local therapy.

 

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Akaike T, Thakuria M, Silk AW, Hippe DS, Park SY, So NA, Maloney NJ, Gunnell L, Eschholz A, Kim EY, Sinha S, Hall ET, Bhatia S, Reddy S, Rodriguez AA, Aleshin A, Choi JS, Tsai KY, Yom SS, Yu SS, Choi J, Chandra S, Nghiem P, Zaba LC. (2024). Circulating Tumor DNA Assay Detects Merkel Cell Carcinoma Recurrence, Disease Progression, and Minimal Residual Disease: Surveillance and Prognostic Implications. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2024 Jul 25:JCO2302054.
  2. Ryu H, Bi TM, Pulliam TH, Sarkar K, Church CD, Kumar N, Mayer-Blackwell K, Jani S, Ramchurren N, Hansen UK, Hadrup SR, Fling SP, Koelle DM, Nghiem P, Newell EW. (2024). Merkel cell polyomavirus-specific and CD39+CLA+ CD8 T cells as blood-based predictive biomarkers for PD-1 blockade in Merkel cell carcinoma. Cell Reports Medicine 2024 Feb 20;5(2):101390.
  3. Pulliam T, Jani S, Jing L, Ryu H, Jojic A, Shasha C, Zhang J, Kulikauskas R, Church CD, Garnett-Benson C, Gooley T, Chapuis A, Paulson K, Smith KN, Pardoll DM, Newell EW, Koelle DM, Topalian SL, Nghiem P. (2024). Circulating cancer-specific CD8 T cell frequency is associated with response to PD-1 blockade in Merkel cell carcinoma. Cell Reports Medicine. 2024 Feb 20;5(2):101412.
  4. McEvoy AM, Hippe DS, Lachance K, Park S, Cahill K, Redman M, Gooley T, Kattan MW, Nghiem P. (2023). Merkel cell carcinoma recurrence risk estimation is improved by integrating factors beyond cancer stage: A multivariable model and web-based calculator. Journal American Academy of Dermatology. 2023 Nov 19:S0190-9622(23)03220-6.
  5. Tabachnick-Cherny S, Pulliam T, Rodriguez HJ, Fan X, Hippe DS, Jones DC, Moshiri AS, Smythe KS, Kulikauskas RM, Zaba L, Paulson KG, Nghiem P. (2023). Characterization of immunosuppressive myeloid cells in Merkel cell carcinoma: correlation with resistance to PD-1 pathway blockade. Clinical cancer research : an official Journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-23-1957.
  6. Church C, Pulliam T, Longino N, Park SY, Smythe KS, Makarov V, Riaz N, Jing L, Amezquita R, Campbell JS, Gottardo R, Pierce RH, Choi J, Chan T, Koelle DM, Nghiem P. (2022). Transcriptional and functional analyses of neoantigen-specific CD4 T cells during a profound response to anti-PD-L1 in metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma. J Immunother Cancer. 2022 Sep;10(9):e005328.
  7. Jing L, Ott M, Church CD, Kulikauskas RM, Ibrani D, Iyer JG, Afanasiev OK, Colunga A, Cook MM, Xie H, Greninger AL, Paulson KG, Chapuis AG, Bhatia S, Nghiem P, Koelle DM. (2020). Prevalent and Diverse Intratumoral Oncoprotein-Specific CD8+ T Cells within Polyomavirus-Driven Merkel Cell Carcinomas. Cancer Immunol Res. 2020 May;8(5):648-659. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-19-0647.
  8. Longino NV, Yang J, Iyer JG, Ibrani D, Chow IT, Laing KJ, Campbell VL, Paulson KG, Kulikauskas RM, Church CD, James EA, Nghiem P, Kwok WW, Koelle DM. (2019). Human CD4+ T Cells Specific for Merkel Cell Polyomavirus Localize to Merkel Cell Carcinomas and Target a Required Oncogenic Domain. Cancer Immunol Res. 2019 Oct;7(10):1727-1739. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-19-0103.
  9. Paulson KG, Voillet V, McAfee MS, Hunter DS, Wagener FD, Perdicchio M, Valente WJ, Koelle SJ, Church CD, Vandeven N, Thomas H, Colunga AG, McAfee M, Iyer JG, Yee C, Kulikauskas R, Koelle DM, Pierce RH, Bielas JH, Greenberg PD, Bhatia S, Gottardo R, Nghiem P, Chapuis A. (2018). Acquired Cancer Resistance to Combination Immunotherapy from Transcriptional Loss of Class I HLA. Nat Commun. 2018 Sep 24;9(1):3868.
  10. Miller NJ, Church CD, Dong L, Crispin D, Fitzgibbon MP, Lachance K, Jing L, Shinohara M, Gavvovidis I, Willimsky G, McIntosh M, Blankenstein T, Koelle DM, Nghiem P. (2017). Tumor-Infiltrating Merkel Cell Polyomavirus-Specific T Cells Are Diverse and Associated with Improved Patient Survival. Cancer Immunol Res. 2017 Feb;5(2):137-147.
  11. Nghiem PT, Bhatia S, Lipson EJ, Kudchadkar RR, Miller NJ, Annamalai L, Berry S, Chartash EK, Daud A, Fling SP, Friedlander PA, Kluger HM, Kohrt HE, Lundgren L, Margolin K, Mitchell A, Olencki T, Pardoll DM, Reddy SA, Shantha EM, Sharfman WH, Sharon E, Shemanski LR, Shinohara MM, Sunshine JC, Taube JM, Thompson JA, Townson SM, Yearley JH, Topalian SL, Cheever MA. (2016). PD-1 Blockade with Pembrolizumab in Advanced Merkel-Cell Carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2016 Apr 19.
  12. Kaufman HL, Russell J, Hamid O, Bhatia S, Terheyden P, D’Angelo SP, Shih KC, Lebbà C, Linette GP, Milella M, Brownell I, Lewis KD, Lorch JH, Chin K, Mahnke L, von Heydebreck A, Cuillerot JM, Nghiem P. (2016). Avelumab in patients with chemotherapy-refractory metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma: a multicentre, single-group, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2016 Sep 1.
Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrintFriendly