Sandra D’Angelo

Dr. Sandra D’Angelo is a medical oncologist and Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York, specializing in soft tissue sarcomas, bone sarcomas, and Merkel cell carcinoma. A leading investigator in sarcoma immunotherapy and cellular therapy, she has made significant contributions to the field through landmark clinical trials including the first adoptive cell therapy study using NY-ESO-1 c259T cells in synovial sarcoma, published in Cancer Discovery (2018), and the randomized Alliance A091401 trial of nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in metastatic sarcoma, published in The Lancet Oncology (2018). Dr. D’Angelo trained entirely at New York University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she completed residency, chief residency, and oncology fellowship. She is a cellular therapy specialist with expertise in CAR T cell therapy and other adoptive cell therapies for cancer. Her research has been recognized with NIH R01 funding, a P50 Career Enhancement Award, multiple ASCO Foundation awards, and an Alliance Scholar Award.

Current Position

• Attending Physician, Sarcoma Medical Oncology Service and Cellular Therapy Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
• Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion, 160 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

Education

• MD, SUNY Downstate College of MedicineResidency,
• Internal Medicine, New York University
• Residency, Internal Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Chief Residency, Internal Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Fellowship, Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

• Internal Medicine
• Medical Oncology

Research Activity

• Adoptive T cell therapy in sarcoma: Principal investigator of the first clinical study of adoptive transfer of NY-ESO-1 c259T cells (MAGE/NY-ESO-1 TCR-engineered T cells) in synovial sarcoma, demonstrating antitumor activity associated with prolonged persistence of transferred T cells (Cancer Discovery, 2018)
• Checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy in sarcoma: Lead investigator of the Alliance A091401 randomized phase II trial of nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in metastatic sarcoma — one of the largest randomized immunotherapy studies in sarcoma, published in The Lancet Oncology (2018)
• Cytokine-based immunotherapy in sarcoma: Lead investigator of a pilot study of bempegaldesleukin (IL-2 conjugate) in combination with nivolumab in patients with metastatic sarcoma (Nature Communications, 2022)
• Immunotherapy in Merkel cell carcinoma: Lead author of the primary and biomarker analyses of the JAVELIN Merkel 200 phase II study of first-line avelumab in 116 patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2021)
• Angiosarcoma and checkpoint blockade: Co-investigator on a study of clinical, genomic, and transcriptomic correlates of response to immune checkpoint blockade-based therapy in angiosarcoma (Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, 2022)
• Active clinical trials: Principal investigator on multiple early-phase trials at MSK including a phase 1 study of DS-2243a in advanced solid tumors, a phase 1-2 study of [AC-225]RTX-2358 in sarcoma, a phase 2 study of tebentafusp in advanced clear cell sarcoma, and a phase I/II study of INCMGA00012 immunotherapy with gemcitabine and docetaxel in advanced soft tissue sarcoma

Honors and Awards

• R01 CA259169-01A1, FDA / NIH, 2022
• P50 CA217694 Career Enhancement Award, 2020
• Sarcoma Foundation Alliance Award, 2018
• Research Grant Recipient, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Society, 2015
• Career Development Award, Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, 2015
• Alliance Scholar Award, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Foundation, 2014
• Young Investigator Award, Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, 2011

Areas of Specialization

• Medical oncology — soft tissue and bone sarcomas
• Merkel cell carcinoma
• Immunotherapy in sarcoma and rare tumors
• Adoptive T cell therapy and cellular therapy (NY-ESO-1 TCR-T cells, CAR T cell therapy)
• Immune checkpoint blockade in sarcoma and angiosarcoma
• Early-phase clinical trials in rare solid tumors
• Sarcoma tumor microenvironment and biomarkers of immunotherapy response

Publications

D’Angelo SP, Melchiori L, Merchant MS, Bernstein D, Glod J, Kaplan R, Grupp S, Tap WD, Mackall CL, et al. “Antitumor Activity Associated with Prolonged Persistence of Adoptively Transferred NY-ESO-1 c259T Cells in Synovial Sarcoma.” Cancer Discovery 8(8):944–957, August 2018. PMID: 29891538.

D’Angelo SP, Mahoney MR, Van Tine BA, Atkins J, Milhem MM, Jahagirdar BN, Antonescu CR, Horvath E, Tap WD, Schwartz GK, Streicher H. “Nivolumab with or without ipilimumab treatment for metastatic sarcoma (Alliance A091401): two open-label, non-comparative, randomised, phase 2 trials.” The Lancet Oncology 19(3):416–426, March 2018. PMID: 29370992.

D’Angelo SP, Lebbé C, Mortier L, Brohl AS, Fazio N, Grob JJ, Prinzi N, Hanna GJ, Hassel JC, Kiecker F, Nghiem P, et al. “First-line avelumab in a cohort of 116 patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (JAVELIN Merkel 200): primary and biomarker analyses of a phase II study.” Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 9(7):e002646, July 2021. PMID: 34301810.

D’Angelo SP, Richards AL, Conley AP, Woo HJ, Dickson MA, Gounder M, Kelly C, Keohan ML, Movva S, Thornton K, Rosenbaum E, Chi P, Nacev B, Chan JE, Tap WD, et al. “Pilot study of bempegaldesleukin in combination with nivolumab in patients with metastatic sarcoma.” Nature Communications 13(1):3477, June 2022. PMID: 35710741.

Rosenbaum E, Antonescu CR, Smith S, Bradic M, Kashani D, Richards AL, Donoghue M, Kelly CM, Nacev B, Chan JE, Chi P, Dickson MA, Keohan ML, Gounder MM, Movva S, Avutu V, Thornton K, Zehir A, Bowman AS, Singer S, Tap W, D’Angelo S. “Clinical, genomic, and transcriptomic correlates of response to immune checkpoint blockade-based therapy in a cohort of patients with angiosarcoma treated at a single center.” Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 10(4):e004149, April 2022. PMID: 35365586.

All information is sourced from publicly available materials.