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| Alessandro Villa, DDS, PhD, MPH | Sook-Bin Woo, DMD, MMSc |
Alessandro Villa, DDS, PhD, MPH, of the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry, received a Research Award from Bristol-Myers Squibb for the clinical study “Safety and Efficacy of Nivolumab in Treating Oral Proliferative Verrucous Leukoplakia.” Villa, co-principal investigator for the project, is working with co-principal investigator Glenn Hanna, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and co-investigator Sook-Bin Woo, DMD, MMSc, of the Brigham’s Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry.
The study — a collaboration among medical oncologists, oral medicine specialists and pathologists — is a phase II clinical trial testing the safety and effectiveness of the drug nivolumab in the management of proliferative verrucous leukoplakia (PVL).
Leukoplakia is the most common precancerous condition in the oral cavity and PVL is a rare variant which is widespread and relentless in its spread, with a high incidence for transformation to cancer. Currently, there is no effective treatment for PVL. Nivolumab, which is manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is an immunotherapy agent used to treat many cancers.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.
