{"entity":{"id":"john-kirkwood","kind":"person","name":"John M. Kirkwood","aka":[],"tldr":"Pittsburgh melanoma doctor who ran the interferon trials that were the first adjuvant treatment for high-risk melanoma, and later led CheckMate 76K on adjuvant nivolumab for stage II disease.","summary":"John Kirkwood leads the melanoma programme at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and led the ECOG trials of high-dose interferon alfa-2b in the 1990s, the first adjuvant therapy shown to reduce melanoma relapse. He was first author of the 2023 Nature Medicine report of CheckMate 76K, in which adjuvant nivolumab improved recurrence-free survival compared with placebo in resected stage IIB or IIC melanoma.","asOf":"2026-09-18","links":[],"tags":["melanoma","adjuvant","trialist"],"related":[],"cancers":["stage-ii-melanoma","stage-iii-melanoma","melanoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["upmc-hillman"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-checkmate-76k-nat-med-2023"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Melanoma medical oncologist, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center","institutionId":"upmc-hillman","specialisms":["Adjuvant therapy for melanoma","Interferon","Immunotherapy"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Kirkwood%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[],"orcid":"0000-0002-3570-4476"},"route":"/people/john-kirkwood/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"stage-ii-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Stage IIB and IIC melanoma","route":"/cancers/stage-ii-melanoma/"},{"id":"stage-iii-melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Stage III melanoma (after surgery)","route":"/cancers/stage-iii-melanoma/"}],"institution":[{"id":"upmc-hillman","kind":"institution","name":"UPMC Hillman Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/upmc-hillman/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-checkmate-76k-nat-med-2023","kind":"paper","name":"CheckMate 76K: adjuvant nivolumab in resected stage IIB or IIC melanoma","route":"/key-papers/paper-checkmate-76k-nat-med-2023/"}]}}