{"entity":{"id":"neil-gross","kind":"person","name":"Neil D. Gross","aka":[],"tldr":"Houston surgeon who led the trial showing that giving cemiplimab before surgery can eliminate cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma in about half of patients, sparing many from extensive operations.","summary":"Neil Gross is a head and neck surgical oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was first author of the 2022 New England Journal of Medicine report of a phase 2 trial of neoadjuvant cemiplimab in resectable stage II to IV cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma, in which about half of patients had a pathological complete response at surgery, and leads studies of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in head and neck cancers.","asOf":"2026-09-18","links":[],"tags":["skin","surgery","immunotherapy","trialist"],"related":[],"cancers":["advanced-cutaneous-scc","head-and-neck","skin-cancer"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["md-anderson"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":["paper-gross-neoadjuvant-cemiplimab-cscc-nejm-2022"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Head and neck surgeon, MD Anderson Cancer Center","institutionId":"md-anderson","specialisms":["Cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma","Neoadjuvant immunotherapy","Head and neck surgery"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gross%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[],"orcid":"0000-0002-9427-0743"},"route":"/people/neil-gross/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"advanced-cutaneous-scc","kind":"cancer","name":"Advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/advanced-cutaneous-scc/"},{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"},{"id":"skin-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Skin cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/skin-cancer/"}],"institution":[{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-gross-neoadjuvant-cemiplimab-cscc-nejm-2022","kind":"paper","name":"Neoadjuvant cemiplimab for stage II to IV cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/key-papers/paper-gross-neoadjuvant-cemiplimab-cscc-nejm-2022/"}]}}