Philip Kantoff

Philip Kantoff

Medical Oncologist, Professor Emeritus

Genitourinary Oncology

Harvard Medical School

Location USA, Boston

Linkedin

Dr. Philip Kantoff is a medical oncologist specializing in genitourinary oncology, with particular expertise in prostate cancer. He is currently Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Convergent Therapeutics, a Cambridge-based company focused on radiopharmaceutical cancer therapies, and Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Professor Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. He is best known for his contributions to understanding DNA abnormalities in prostate cancer and the discovery of therapies for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer.

Current Position

  • Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Convergent Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Board Member, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Santa Monica, California
  • Board Member, Context Therapeutics, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education

MD — The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Brown University
Residency in Internal Medicine — New York University/Bellevue Hospital
Postdoctoral Fellowship — National Institutes of Health
Fellowship in Medical Oncology — Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Professional Experience

  • Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Convergent Therapeutics, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts , a pharmaceutical company focused on radiopharmaceutical cancer therapies.
  • Chairman of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, where he led the Department of Medicine and oversaw clinical and research programs across oncology disciplines.
  • Division Head of Solid Tumor Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston , where he led a major clinical and research division focused on solid tumor cancers.
  • Leader of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he directed the genitourinary oncology program for nearly 25 years, including serving as head of the Prostate Cancer Program.
  • Lead investigator for Dendreon’s clinical trials for Sipuleucel-T, a therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer approved by the FDA in 2010.
  • Board Member, ESSA Pharma.
  • Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College.

Research Activity

  • DNA abnormalities and their impact on prostate cancer biology, including DNA damage repair alterations and their role in disease progression and therapy resistance.
  • Discovery and development of therapies for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, including androgen receptor pathway inhibitors.
  • Clonal hematopoiesis and its relationship to prostate cancer risk and cardiovascular outcomes in men with prostate cancer.
  • Y chromosome loss in primary and metastatic prostate cancer and its clinical significance.
  • PI3K pathway activation in prostate cancer, including PIK3R1 mutations and PTEN loss.
  • BCL2-driven castration resistance in castration-sensitive prostate cancer.
  • BRCA2 and RB1 co-loss in aggressive prostate cancer progression.
  • Racial disparities in prostate cancer genomics, clinical outcomes, and clinical trial enrollment.
  • Development and leadership of the IRONMAN Registry, an international registry for men with advanced prostate cancer.
  • Radiopharmaceutical cancer therapies through Convergent Therapeutics, including the CONVERGE-01 trial evaluating AC-225 rosopatamab tetraxetan in PSMA-positive castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Memberships / Honors / Awards

  • Inaugural Nancy and Jerome Kohlberg Chair in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
  • Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Professor Emeritus, Harvard Medical School
  • Giants in Cancer Care, OncLive
  • Elected Member, Association of American Physicians
  • Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Awards — on Clonal Hematopoiesis and Prostate Cancer, and on DNA Damage Repair Alterations in Prostate Cancer
  • NCI SPORE Grant for Prostate Cancer
  • NCI Program Project Grant on DNA Damage Repair Alterations in Prostate Cancer

Areas of Specialization

  • Genitourinary oncology, with a focus on prostate cancer
  • DNA damage repair alterations in cancer
  • Radiopharmaceutical cancer therapies
  • Cancer immunotherapy
  • Metastatic hormone-sensitive and castration-resistant prostate cancer

Publications

Rajanala SH, Ghale R, Nandakumar S, et al. Quantifying Y Chromosome Loss in Primary and Metastatic Prostate Cancer by Chromosome Painting. Apr 2024.
Van Neste L, Henao R, Wojno KJ, Kantoff PW, et al. Development and Optimization of a Subtraction-Normalized Immunocyte Profiling Signature for Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance Risk Stratification. Dec 2023.
Stopsack KH, Vijai J, Conry M, Pomerantz MM, Kantoff PW, et al. Germline DNA Damage Repair Variants and Prognosis of Patients with High-Risk or Metastatic Prostate Cancer. Oct 2024.
Hirani R, Nandakumar S, Zaman N, Chakraborty G, Kantoff PW, et al. BCL2 Drives Castration Resistance in Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer by Orchestrating Reciprocal Crosstalk Between Oncogenic Pathways. May 2025.
Chakraborty G, Nandakumar S, Hirani R, Kantoff PW, et al. The Impact of PIK3R1 Mutations and Insulin-PI3K-Glycolytic Pathway Regulation in Prostate Cancer. Jun 2022.
Mazzu YZ, Liao YR, Nandakumar S, Kantoff PW, et al. Dynamic Expression of SNAI2 in Prostate Cancer Predicts Tumor Progression and Drug Sensitivity. Feb 2022.
Mazzu YZ, Liao YR, Nandakumar S, Kantoff PW, et al. Prognostic and Therapeutic Significance of COP9 Signalosome Subunit CSN5 in Prostate Cancer. Jan 2022.
Chakraborty G, Armenia J, Mazzu YZ, Kantoff PW, et al. Significance of BRCA2 and RB1 Co-loss in Aggressive Prostate Cancer Progression. Apr 2020.
Chakraborty G, Patail NK, Hirani R, Kantoff PW, et al. Attenuation of SRC Kinase Activity Augments PARP Inhibitor-Mediated Synthetic Lethality in BRCA2-Altered Prostate Tumors. Dec 2020.
Stopsack KH, Nandakumar S, Wibmer AG, Abida W, Kantoff PW, et al. Oncogenic Genomic Alterations, Clinical Phenotypes, and Outcomes in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer. Jul 2020.
Stopsack KH, Mucci LA, Antonarakis ES, Kantoff PW, et al. TMPRSS2 and COVID-19: Serendipity or Opportunity for Intervention? Jun 2020.
Mazzu YZ, Armenia J, Nandakumar S, Kantoff PW, et al. Ribonucleotide Reductase Small Subunit M2 is a Master Driver of Aggressive Prostate Cancer. May 2020.
Mucci LA, Vinson J, Gerke T, George DJ, Kantoff PW, et al. IRONMAN: A Novel International Registry of Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer. Nov 2022.
Kantoff PW, Higano CS, Shore ND, et al. Sipuleucel-T Immunotherapy for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med, Jul 2010.
Komura K, Yoshikawa Y, Shimamura T, Kantoff PW, et al. ATR Inhibition Controls Aggressive Prostate Tumors Deficient in Y-Linked Histone Demethylase KDM5D. J Clin Invest, Jul 2018.
Giovannucci E, Stampfer MJ, Krithivas K, Kantoff PW, et al. The CAG Repeat within the Androgen Receptor Gene and Its Relationship to Prostate Cancer. PNAS, Apr 1997.
Kantoff PW, Kohn DB, Mitsuya H, et al. Correction of Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency in Cultured Human T and B Cells by Retrovirus-Mediated Gene Transfer. PNAS, Sep 1986.

All information is sourced from publicly available materials.