George A. Fisher, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine (Oncology Division), Stanford University School of Medicine

Research Description: Dr. Fisher’s research is primarily focused on clinical and translational research in gastrointestinal malignancies. With a special interest in pancreas cancer, he has conducted several trials testing novel immunotherapy agents including an allogeneic pancreatic cell vaccine that expressed alpha-galactosyltransferase in a randomized adjuvant trial as well as an IDO inhibitor with chemotherapy in first line metastatic disease and a combination of PD-1, GVAX and CRS207, a Listeria based mesothelin vaccine for patients with advanced pancreas cancer after failure of first line therapy. Dr. Fisher is a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and helped design a pancreas trial using standard chemotherapy and antibodies targeting PD-1 and CD40 and a successor trial using chemotherapy with ipilumumab and nivolumab as first line therapy for metastatic disease.  He worked with the Johns Hopkins group in establishing the efficacy of targeting PD-1 in tumors that are deficient in DNA mismatch repair, including pancreas cancer. Dr. Fisher serves on the National Cancer Trial Network GI Steering Committee, is Vice Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN GI Committee and a past member of the NCCN Pancreatic Cancer Guidelines Committee. He is also on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board of PANCAN and past chair of the Steering Committee for the annual GI ASCO Symposium.

Selected relevant publications (Stanford PCRG members in bold):

  1. O'Hara MH, O'Reilly EM, Varadhachary G, Wolff RA, Wainberg ZA, Ko AH, Fisher G, Rahma O, Lyman JP, Cabanski CR, Mick R, Gherardini PF, Kitch LJ, Xu J, Samuel T, Karakunnel J, Fairchild J, Bucktrout S, LaVallee TM, Selinsky C, Till JE, Carpenter EL, Alanio C, Byrne KT, Chen RO, Trifan OC, Dugan U, Horak C, Hubbard-Lucey VM, Wherry EJ, Ibrahim R, Vonderheide RH. CD40 agonistic monoclonal antibody APX005M (sotigalimab) and chemotherapy, with or without nivolumab, for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma: an open-label, multicentre, phase 1b study. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Jan;22(1):118-131. PMID: 33387490.

  2. Tsujikawa T, Crocenzi T, Durham JN, Sugar EA, Wu AA, Onners B, Nauroth JM, Anders RA, Fertig EJ, Laheru DA, Reiss K, Vonderheide RH, Ko AH, Tempero MA, Fisher GA, Considine M, Danilova L, Brockstedt DG, Coussens LM, Jaffee EM, Le DT. Evaluation of Cyclophosphamide/GVAX Pancreas Followed by Listeria-Mesothelin (CRS-207) with or without Nivolumab in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2020 Jul 15;26(14):3578-3588. PMCID: PMC7727397.

  3. O'Reilly EM, Oh DY, Dhani N, Renouf DJ, Lee MA, Sun W, Fisher G, Hezel A, Chang SC, Vlahovic G, Takahashi O, Yang Y, Fitts D, Philip PA. Durvalumab With or Without Tremelimumab for Patients With Metastatic Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2019 Oct 1;5(10):1431-1438. PMCID: PMC6647002.

  4. Lu G, van den Berg NS, Martin BA, Nishio N, Hart ZP, van Keulen S, Fakurnejad S, Chirita SU, Raymundo RC, Yi G, Zhou Q, Fisher GA, Rosenthal EL, Poultsides GA. Tumour-specific fluorescence-guided surgery for pancreatic cancer using panitumumab-IRDye800CW: a phase 1 single-centre, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation study. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Aug;5(8):753-764. PMCID: PMC7367758.

  5. Toesca DAS, Jeffrey RB, von Eyben R, Pollom EL, Poullos PD, Poultsides GA, Fisher GA Jr, Visser BC, Koong AC, Chang DT. Predicting Pancreatic Cancer Resectability and Outcomes Based on an Objective Quantitative Scoring System. Pancreas. 2019 May/Jun;48(5):622-628. PMCID: PMC6553971.