Though SCCA offers the best cancer treatment available, I feel we can do even better. Through clinical research, we can advance treatments even further to improve our patients’ quality of life and help create more survivors of head and neck cancers. That's why my research is focused on immunotherapy, targeted therapies and designing clinical trials for head and thoracic cancers. I’ve contributed to over 80 publications and authored clinical trials that led to new therapies being used up to 73 months before FDA approval.

Today is a completely different medical landscape than just five years ago. The difference in a huge part is due to SCCA being at the forefront of developing cellular immunotherapies and the new therapies available. Our treatments administer cancer-fighting immune cells in combination with drugs that stimulate the immune system. For some lung cancer patients, a checkpoint inhibitor is now the preferred first-line therapy — before chemotherapy — to prevent cancer from blocking your body’s immune response.