Researcher Spotlight: Alexander Boardman, MD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Boardman is an attending medical oncologist specializing in the study and treatment of lymphoma. His work focuses on the development of novel therapies for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and other indolent non-Hodgkin lymphomas. “Since my residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston, I have been deeply passionate about caring for people with lymphoma,” he says.

“While there, I had the great fortune of providing care to patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy around the time of its first FDA approval,” he explains. These experiences laid the groundwork for his current research supported by the Foundation, which focuses on understanding how anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapies interact with their environment. Through this research, he hopes to identify cell types or interactions that predict response to treatment and the development of resistance. His work will also study whether novel therapies can be used to enhance the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy to help improve responses and patient outcomes.

“As a faculty member on both lymphoma and cellular therapy service, I am determined to effect change in the field of cellular therapy, working seamlessly with basic scientists and academic clinicians to develop novel therapeutic strategies and to understand the underlying mechanisms of their efficacy,” says Dr. Boardman. As he moves forward in his career, he aims to continue researching drivers of treatment failure and devising novel therapeutic strategies to improve outcomes in lymphoma patients.