Ezra E.W. Cohen

Ezra E.W. Cohen, MD is Associate Director for Translational Science at UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center and a Professor of Medicine. He is one of the foremost clinical investigators in head and neck oncology and immunotherapy. Dr. Cohen played a pivotal role in the CheckMate 141 trial, the landmark randomized phase III study demonstrating that nivolumab (anti-PD-1) significantly improved overall survival compared with standard single-agent therapies in patients with platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic HNSCC. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2016, CheckMate 141 led to the first FDA approval of a checkpoint inhibitor in head and neck cancer and transformed the post-platinum treatment landscape. He has subsequently led numerous pivotal trials in R/M HNSCC and locoregionally advanced HNSCC and has been instrumental in developing predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy response. A prolific author with over 230 publications, Dr. Cohen also chairs national guideline committees for HNSCC and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.