# Dung T. Le

Source: https://onco.cc/people/dung-le/  
OnCo record `dung-le` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

First author of the studies that showed mismatch-repair-deficient tumours respond to PD-1 blockade regardless of origin.

## Summary

Dung T. Le is Professor of Oncology and Co-Director of GI Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is known as first author of the studies showing that mismatch-repair-deficient tumours respond to PD-1 blockade regardless of where they arise, leading the KEYNOTE-016 study and its extension that established pembrolizumab's tissue-agnostic activity. Her selected paper reports PD-1 blockade in tumours with mismatch-repair deficiency. She also works on GVAX and pancreatic cancer vaccines in colorectal and pancreatic cancer.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Role: Professor of Oncology; Co-Director, GI Cancer Immunotherapy
- Specialisms: MSI-high cancers; Pancreatic cancer immunotherapy; Cancer vaccines

## Sources

- Hopkins profile: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/details/dung-le
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Le%20DT%5BAuthor%5D

## Connected records

- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Mismatch repair deficient (MSI-high) pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/msi-high-pdac/), [Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/pancreatic/)
- targets: [PD-1](https://onco.cc/targets/pd1/)
- drugs: [Pembrolizumab](https://onco.cc/drugs/pembrolizumab/)
- institutions: [Johns Hopkins Hospital / Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://onco.cc/institutions/johns-hopkins/)
- roadmaps: [Colorectal cancer roadmap: from the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and the first screening trials to total mesorectal excision, oxaliplatin, RAS testing, immunotherapy for mismatch repair-deficient disease, ctDNA-guided treatment and organ preservation](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/colorectal-roadmap/)
- key papers: [KEYNOTE-158: pembrolizumab in non-colorectal high microsatellite instability or mismatch repair-deficient cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-keynote-158-pembrolizumab-msi-high-noncolorectal-jco-2020/), [KEYNOTE-177: pembrolizumab instead of chemotherapy as first treatment for mismatch-repair-deficient metastatic colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-keynote-177-nejm-2020/), [Le 2015: PD-1 blockade works in tumours with mismatch-repair deficiency, whatever the organ](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-le-mmr-deficiency-pd1-nejm-2015/), [Le 2017: mismatch-repair deficiency predicts response to PD-1 blockade across twelve tumour types, leading to the first tissue-agnostic drug approval](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-le-mmr-deficiency-science-2017/)

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