Researcher Spotlight: Harsh Shah, DO

The University of Utah

Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors is commonly used for treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma after relapse. While many patients initially respond to these therapies, the development of resistance is common over time. Dr. Shah’s research is focused on developing novel treatment approaches to help prevent or overcome resistance to improve outcomes for these patients. He is currently working on a clinical trial for a new drug that targets tumor-associated immune cells that may help contribute to checkpoint inhibitor resistance in the hopes of offering new treatment options for patients who are refractory to other leading treatment options.

“During my training, I often saw patients who had relapsed disease and were out of treatment options even after receiving a stem cell transplant and checkpoint inhibitors,”says Dr. Shah. “This motivated me to come up with a [new] treatment concept that would especially help the young refractory patient population.”

Dr. Shah completed his medical training at A.T. Still University in Missouri and a hematology/oncology fellowship at Wayne State University in Michigan. He is currently an assistant professor at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. With the support of the Lymphoma Research Foundation, he hopes to continue working on developing clinical trials to evaluate new treatment approaches to support Hodgkin lymphoma patients with refractory disease.

Dr. Shah is also a 2022 Scholar through the Lymphoma Scientific Research Mentoring Program.