PITTSBURGH – UPMC Hillman Cancer Center announced the appointment of Jason Luke, M.D., F.A.C.P., to direct the newly established Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center and serve as associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 

A medical oncologist and clinical investigator, Luke specializes in early phase drug development for melanoma and solid tumors. He has been the lead investigator for numerous immunotherapies over the past several years. As director of UPMC Hillman’s Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, he will have oversight of all early phase immunotherapy studies at UPMC Hillman, in collaboration with Leisha Emens, Ph.D., co-leader of the UPMC Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program. 

“We have a well-established immunotherapy program at Hillman with research scientists making novel discoveries in furthering this cancer treatment,” said Robert Ferris, M.D., Ph.D., director of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. “Dr. Luke will help to bring those early phase studies to clinical trials and to our patients who can greatly benefit.”

Luke most recently served as assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. He received his medical degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science/Chicago Medical School and completed his internship and residency at Boston University Medical Center, followed by fellowships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. 

“I am excited to work with the tremendous team at UPMC Hillman, which has developed one of the most robust early phase immunotherapy clinical trial programs in the country,” said Luke. “Together, I believe we will extend this research and treatment options throughout the UPMC cancer network.”

Luke also has received multiple awards for research and clinical care, including the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award, Melanoma Research Foundation Humanitarian Award, ASCO Merit Award, as well as Young Investigator Awards from the Melanoma Research Alliance, Cancer Research Foundation, and Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO.

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CAPTION: Jason Luke, M.D., F.A.C.P., director, Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, and associate professor of medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine