Anish Thomas, MBBS, M.D.

Anish Thomas, MBBS, M.D.
Investigator
Developmental Therapeutics Branch
NIH Lasker Clinical Research Scholar

I am a clinical researcher with a focus on small cell lung cancer (SCLC), one of the most aggressive human cancers. The goal of my research is to systematically develop more effective therapies for patients with SCLC and similar chemotherapy-refractory tumors by targeting key pathways involved in DNA replication, repair, and chromatin remodeling. I design and conduct phase I and phase II trials that examine strategies to determine how enhancing DNA replicative stress can best be used in the clinic in combination with existing therapies to improve patient outcomes. This work stems from my intramural and extramural collaborations with basic scientists, translational researchers, surgical pathologists and clinicians, all of whom are interested in various facets of SCLC- from understanding the biology of genomic instability, chromatin regulation, and immunomodulation in solid tumors to identifying cancer dependencies that drive responses.

Areas of Expertise

1) small cell lung cancer, 2) DNA damage response, 3) immune response, 4) genomic instability, 5) chromatin regulation, 6) immunotherapy

Contact Info

Anish Thomas, MBBS, M.D.
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
Building 10 Room 4-5330
Bethesda, MD 20892
Ph: 240-760-7343
anish.thomas@nih.gov

Our primary hypothesis is that a rational use of DNA damage response inhibitors can enhance replicative stress and augment efficacy of currently available therapies including chemotherapies and immunotherapies. The secondary hypothesis is that tumor targeted chemotherapy delivery could improve the tolerability of DNA damage response inhibitor-combinations. We now have 5 ongoing trials addressing these hypotheses. Our first trial, a phase I trial of an ATR kinase inhibitor and topotecan recently completed enrolment and we are now enrolling patients on phase II. Other ongoing trials involve combinations of PARP inhibitors with tumor targeted chemotherapy or immunotherapy.

The following trials are recruiting small cell cancer patients:

  1. A Phase II Trial of Topotecan plus VX970, an ATR Kinase Inhibitor (open also for extra-pulmonary small cell cancers)
  2. A phase II Trial of anti-PDL1 antibody durvalumab plus olaparib (SCLC cohort)
  3. A Phase I/II Trial of CRLX101, a Nanoparticle Camptothecin with Olaparib in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Small Cell Lung, Bladder and Prostate Cancers

The following trials are recruiting solid tumor patients who have previously been treated with chemotherapy:

  1. Phase I Study of a Combination of MM-398 and Veliparib in solid tumors
  2. A Phase I/II Trial of CRLX101, a Nanoparticle Camptothecin with Olaparib in Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Small Cell Lung, Bladder and Prostate Cancers
  3. The first-in-human phase I trial of PEN-866, PEN-866 in Patients With Advanced Solid Malignancies

Selected Recent Publications

  1. Thomas A, Pommier Y. Small cell lung cancer: time to revisit the DNA damaging chemotherapy strategy. Science Translational Medicine 2016; 8:346fs12. PMID: 27384345
  2. Thomas A, Redon C, Sciuto L, Padiernos E, Jiuping Ji, Lee M-J, Lee S, Zhang Y, Tran L, Yutzy W, Rajan A, Guha U, Chen H, Hassan R, Alewine C, Bates S, Kinders R, Steinberg S, Doroshow J, Aladjem M, Trepel J, Pommier Y. Phase I Study of ATR inhibitor M6620 in Combination with Topotecan in Patients with Advanced Solid tumors (in print Journal of Clinical Oncology).
  3. Thomas A, Rajan A, Berman A, Tomita Y, Brzezniak C, Lee M-J, Lee S, Ling A, Spittler AJ, Carter CA, Guha U, Wang Y, Szabo E, Meltzer P, Steinberg SM, Trepel JB, Loehrer PJ, Giaccone G. Sunitinib in patients with chemotherapy refractory thymoma and thymic carcinoma: an open label phase II trial. Lancet Oncology. 2015; 16:177-86. PMID: 25592632.
  4. Lopez-Chavez A, Thomas A (co-first author), Rajan A, Raffeld M, Morrow B, Kelly R,  Carter CA, Guha U, Killian K, Lau CL, Abdullaev Z, Xi L, Pack S, Meltzer PS, Corless CL, Sandler A, Beadling C, Warrick A, Liewehr DJ, Steinberg SM, Berman A,  Doyle A, Szabo E, Wang Y, Giaccone G. Molecular Profiling and Targeted Therapy for Advanced Thoracic Malignancies: a biomarker derived multi-arm, multi-histology phase II “basket” trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2015 Feb 9. PMID: 25667274.
  5. Enewold L, Thomas A. Real-World Patterns of EGFR Testing and Treatment with Erlotinib for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the United States. PLoS One. 2016 Jun 13;11(6):e0156728. PMID: 27294665.
  6. Thomas A, Liu SV, Subramaniam DS, Giaccone G. Refining the treatment of NSCLC according to histological and molecular subtypes. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. 2015 May 12. PMID: 25963091.
  7. Thomas A, Chen Y, Steinberg S, Luo J, Giaccone G, Pastan I, Miettinen M, Hassan R. The prognostic role of mesothelin expression and its association with KRAS mutation in advanced lung adenocarcinoma. Oncotarget 2015;6:11694-703. PMID: 26028668.
  8. Thomas A, Rajan A, Szabo E, Tomita Y, Carter CA, Scepura B, Lopez-Chavez A, Lee MJ, Redon CE, Frosch A, Peer CJ, Chen Y, Piekarz RL, Steinberg SM, Trepel JB, Figg W, Schrump DS, Giaccone G. A Phase I/II Trial of Belinostat in Combination with Cisplatin, Doxorubicin and Cyclophosphamide in Thymic Epithelial Tumors: A Clinical and Translational Study. Clinical Cancer Research. 2014; 20:5392-402. PMID: 25189481.
NIH Scientific Focus Areas:
Cancer Biology, Clinical Research, Genetics and Genomics, Immunology
View Dr. Thomas' PubMed Summary.
View Dr. Thomas' ORCID page.

Selected Recent Publications

  1. Sensitivity of Mesothelioma Cells to PARP Inhibitors Is Not Dependent on BAP1 but Is Enhanced by Temozolomide in Cells With High-Schlafen 11 and Low-O6-methylguanine-DNA Methyltransferase Expression.
    Rathkey D, Khanal M, Murai J, Zhang J, Sengupta M, Jiang Q, Morrow B, Evans CN, Chari R, Fetsch P, Chung HJ, Xi L, Roth M, Filie A, Raffeld M, Thomas A, Pommier Y, Hassan R.
    J Thorac Oncol. 15(5): 843-59, 2020. [ Journal Article ]
  2. Durvalumab in Combination with Olaparib in Patients with Relapsed SCLC: Results from a Phase II Study.
    Thomas A, Vilimas R, Trindade C, Erwin-Cohen R, Roper N, Xi L, Krishnasamy V, Levy E, Mammen A, Nichols S, Chen Y, Velcheti V, Yin F, Szabo E, Pommier Y, Steinberg SM, Trepel JB, Raffeld M, Young HA, Khan J, Hewitt S, Lee JM.
    J Thorac Oncol. 14(8): 1447-57, 2019. [ Journal Article ]
  3. The evolving landscape of predictive biomarkers of response to PARP inhibitors.
    Thomas A, Murai J, Pommier Y.
    J Clin Invest. 128(5): 1727-30, 2018. [ Journal Article ]
  4. Phase I Study of ATR inhibitor M6620 in Combination with Topotecan in Patients with Advanced Solid tumors.
    Thomas A, Redon C, Sciuto L, Padiernos E, Jiuping Ji, Lee M-J, Lee S, Zhang Y, Tran L, Yutzy W, Rajan A, Guha U, Chen H, Hassan R, Alewine C, Bates S, Kinders R, Steinberg S, Doroshow J, Aladjem M, Trepel J, Pommier Y
    J Clin Oncol. 36(16): 1594-1602, 2018. [ Journal Article ]
  5. Small cell lung cancer: time to revisit the DNA damaging chemotherapy strategy.
    Thomas A, Pommier Y.
    Sci Transl Med. 8(346): 346fs12, 2016. [ Journal Article ]

Anish Thomas, MD is a medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of thoracic cancers. He received his medical degree and postgraduate training in Internal Medicine from St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India, following which he completed residency in Internal Medicine from State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse. He trained in Medical Oncology and Hematology at the Medical Oncology Branch of National Cancer Institute and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, respectively.

Name Position
Samantha Nichols Physician Assistant (Contr.)
Linda Sciuto R.N., B.S.N., O.C.N. Research Nurse Specialist
Rasa Vilimas R.N., B.S.N. Research Nurse Specialist
Yang Zhang Ph.D. Biologist
Yolland Jackson
Fearless in the face of small cell lung cancer
Combination therapy trial opens for patients with metastatic or unresectable solid tumors
Combination therapy trial opens for patients with metastatic or unresectable solid tumors
Clinical trial studies safety and efficacy of adding a kinase inhibitor to chemotherapy with topotecan in small cell lung cancer
Clinical trial studies safety and efficacy of adding a kinase inhibitor to chemotherapy with topotecan in small cell lung cancer