Melanoma Research Pioneer Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, Dies

Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD

The 2016 Giants of Cancer Care^® award winner in Melanoma, Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD, has died, according to an announcement from The Melanoma Research Alliance.¹

Weber served as deputy director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center; the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Oncology in the Department of Medicine at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine; director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program; and co-leader of the Clinical Melanoma Program Board at NYU Langone Health.²

“The Melanoma Research Alliance mourns the passing of Dr Jeffrey S. Weber, a true pioneer in the field of cancer immunotherapy and an extraordinary leader in melanoma research,” the Melanoma Research Alliance wrote in a post on LinkedIn.¹ “His contributions have forever changed the landscape of melanoma treatment, bringing groundbreaking advances from the lab into clinical practice and offering hope to countless patients.”

After receiving his PhD from Rockefeller University in 1979, Weber earned his MD from NYU in 1980. He completed his residency at the University of California, San Diego, in 1983, and he finished a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in 1986.²

From 2007 until joining NYU Langone Health in 2015, Weber served as director of the Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. During his career, he also conducted research and taught at the University of California, Irvine. He was also chief of Medical Oncology at the University of Southern California (USC) and associate director of Clinical Research at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles.

Weber was an investigator on a phase 3 trial (NCT00094653) that showed that treatment with ipilimumab (Yervoy) with or without a gp100 peptide vaccine improved overall survival compared with a gp100 peptide vaccine alone in patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma.³

Subsequently, Weber served as lead investigator of the phase 3 CheckMate 037 trial (NCT01721746), which evaluated nivolumab (Opdivo) vs chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma who experienced disease progression following treatment with ipilimumab.⁴ Findings from the trial supported the 2014 FDA approval of nivolumab for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma following treatment with ipilimumab or a BRAF inhibitor.⁵ Weber was then lead investigator for the phase 3 CheckMate 238 trial (NCT02388906), which supported the FDA approval of nivolumab as adjuvant treatment for patients with completely resected melanoma with lymph node involvement or metastatic disease.^6,7

“I was lucky to be involved in the immunotherapy field from the very beginning, and many of my mentors and colleagues are still among the leaders 30-plus years later,” Weber said in a 2016 interview with OncLive^® after being named a Giant of Cancer Care in Melanoma. “In the oncology community, melanoma was considered a death sentence…We’re now at the point at having a discussion about ‘cure’ with our patients. We were never able to use that word.”

Weber’s work continued until his death. Earlier in 2024, he was lead study author of the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 trial (NCT03897881), data from which showed that the addition of the novel, mRNA-based, individualized neoantigen therapy mRNA-4157 to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) improved recurrence-free survival vs pembrolizumab alone in patients with resected, high-risk melanoma.⁸

“I live by the rules of oncology, of which there are 10…The prime rule, rule number 10, is that ‘the patient comes first,’” Weber said in an interview with OncLive On Air^® in 2020. “That’s professionally the rule by which all physicians must live. The patient comes first, ahead of everything else.”

Weber also worked with Physicians’ Education Resource^® and chaired events for the organization; most recently, in April 2024, he served as co-chair of the 20th Annual International Symposium on Melanoma and Other Cutaneous Malignancies^®. He was slated to co-chair the 21st Annual meeting in February 2025.

Outside of work, one of Weber’s interests included reading and collecting art about military history, including a keen interest in World War II aviation.

When Weber was named a Giant of Cancer Care at 64 years of age, he said he had no plans to take a step back from clinical work in the near future. He saw himself remaining employed and involved with research for another 10 or 15 years.

Despite the advances in the melanoma field that he witnessed and helped facilitate, Weber remained a proponent of clinical trials to continue pushing for improved outcomes for patients.

“Without [clinical trials], there will be no cures. Someday we will be curing a large proportion of people with melanoma,” Weber said in 2016. “It may be in my lifetime, [or] it may not; what’s important is that it will [be cured], as long as good people continue to be involved in clinical trials.”

References

1. Melanoma Research Alliance. The Melanoma Research Alliance mourns the passing of Dr. Jeffrey S. Weber, a true pioneer in the field of cancer immunotherapy and an extraordinary leader[...]. LinkedIn. Posted August 19, 2024. Accessed August 19, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melanoma-research-alliance_the-melanoma-research-alliance-mourns-the-activity-7231322209300946946-bgBV/
2. Jeffrey S. Weber, MD, PhD. NYU Langone Health. Accessed August 19, 2024. https://nyulangone.org/doctors/1053348706/jeffrey-s-weber
3. Hodi FS, O'Day SJ, McDermott DF, et al. Improved survival with ipilimumab in patients with metastatic melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2010;363(8):711-723. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1003466
4. Weber JS, D'Angelo SP, Minor D, et al. Nivolumab versus chemotherapy in patients with advanced melanoma who progressed after anti-CTLA-4 treatment (CheckMate 037): a randomised, controlled, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2015;16(4):375-384. doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(15)70076-8
5. Bristol-Myers Squibb receives accelerated approval of Opdivo (nivolumab) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. News release. Bristol Myers Squibb. December 22, 2014. Accessed August 19, 2024. https://news.bms.com/news/details/2014/Bristol-Myers-Squibb-Receives-Accelerated-Approval-of-Opdivo-nivolumab-from-the-US-Food-and-Drug-Administration/default.aspx
6. FDA grants regular approval to nivolumab for adjuvant treatment of melanoma. FDA. December 20, 2017. Accessed August 19, 2024. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-grants-regular-approval-nivolumab-adjuvant-treatment-melanoma
7. Weber J, Mandala M, Del Vecchio M, et al. Adjuvant Nivolumab versus Ipilimumab in Resected Stage III or IV Melanoma. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(19):1824-1835. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1709030
8. Weber JS, Carlino MS, Khattak A, et al. Individualised neoantigen therapy mRNA-4157 (V940) plus pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab monotherapy in resected melanoma (KEYNOTE-942): a randomised, phase 2b study. Lancet. 2024;403(10427):632-644. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02268-7