MD, PhD
Executive Director, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
System Chief of Oncology Clinical Services, UNC Health
UNC-Chapel Hill
Immunology
Area of Interest
Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, is the Executive Director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Chief of Oncology Clinical Services for UNC Health. He is a head and neck surgical oncologist, and leading expert in cancer immunotherapy.
Ferris is a pioneering cancer immunotherapist who develops and implements immunotherapy to stimulate the body’s immune system to eliminate and suppress cancer. He studies how immune cells in the tumor microenvironment can be harnessed to combat cancer and how tumor cells evade the body’s immunologic defenses.
He has led several practice-changing, prospective randomized trials — including those that led to the approval of immunotherapy for head and neck cancer — and tested treatment deintensification for good prognosis HPV+ head and neck cancer after transoral surgery. He leads a National Cancer Institute-funded immunotherapy laboratory.
Ferris currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research and Cancer Immunology Research, and as section editor for the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. He is editor-in-chief of Oral Oncology.
Ferris has published more than 420 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and was co-chair of the National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Steering committee for six years to facilitate prospective clinical trials. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards.
News and Stories
UNC Lineberger and UNC faculty and trainees present findings at AACR annual meeting
Nearly 30 UNC Lineberger and UNC faculty and trainees will present findings and participate during the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Chicago, April 25-30.
Combination immunotherapy before surgery may increase survival in people with head and neck cancer
Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, and colleagues report in Cancer Cell that head and neck squamous cell carcinomas responded better to a combination of two immunotherapies than to one immunotherapy drug.
