David E. Kozono, MD, PhD

Basic/Laboratory: One of my top priorities is to identify and characterize lung cancer radiosensitizers. Standard treatment for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer involves radiation therapy and chemotherapy given together. Radiosensitizers are drugs that improve the ability of radiation to destroy tumors without damaging surrounding vital organs. To discover novel therapeutics with the potential to act as radiosensitizers, we have been performing genome-wide screens in lung cancer cells to identify genes whose loss increases the effect of radiation on the cancer cells. Once we identify promising gene targets, we test potential drugs and characterize their mechanisms of action, e.g., impact on DNA damage repair, to identify biomarkers that may predict treatment responses.

Clinical/Translational: I am an Executive Officer for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a North American research organization that develops and conducts cancer clinical trials. Ongoing studies include a randomized trial of the immunotherapy drug atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy and radiation for limited stage small cell lung cancer and a randomized trial of highly focused (stereotactic) radiation therapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. I am also the Principal Investigator for the Brigham and Women's/Dana-Farber Radiation Oncology All-Department Biorepository to Accelerate New Discoveries (BROADBAND) protocol for systematic collection of health information, treatment data, blood samples and other biospecimens for translational studies.