Benjamin Fairfax
BM BCh, MRCP, PhD
Associate Professor
- Wellcome Intermediate Clinical Fellow
- Hon. Consultant Medical Oncologist
Group Leader
Research Interests
Checkpoint Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of multiple cancer subtypes, notably melanoma.
Clinical outcomes from these treatments are variable however. Toxicity, in the form of immune related adverse events, is a frequent cause of patient morbidity, whilst many patients' tumours show only limited sensitivity to immunotherapy.
This inter-patient heterogeneity in response is determined by features of the cancer - such as driver mutations and overall mutational burden, as well as tumour-extrinsic factors. These include past immune exposures of the patient, genetically determined features of the immune system and other factors including potentially the microbiome (most notably the bacterial strains within the gut).
My group is interested in the interplay between patients' immune systems and their response to checkpoint immunotherapy. We study this in samples generously donated by cancer patients who have received treatment in the OUH.
We hope the findings of our work will further our understanding of how the immune system can tackle cancer, improving oncological outcomes from cancer immunotherapy whilst reduce suffering due to side effects.
Recent publications
-
Natural Killer cells demonstrate distinct eQTL and transcriptome-wide disease associations, highlighting their role in autoimmunity.
Journal article
Gilchrist JJ. et al, (2022), Nat Commun, 13
-
Checkpoint-blocker-induced autoimmunity is associated with favourable outcome in metastatic melanoma and distinct T-cell expression profiles.
Journal article
Ye W. et al, (2021), Br J Cancer
-
Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells are activated in the gastrointestinal tissue of patients with combination ipilimumab and nivolumab therapy-related colitis in a pathology distinct from ulcerative colitis.
Journal article
Sasson SC. et al, (2020), Clin Exp Immunol, 202, 335 - 352
-
Peripheral CD8+ T cell characteristics associated with durable responses to immune checkpoint blockade in patients with metastatic melanoma.
Journal article
Fairfax BP. et al, (2020), Nat Med, 26, 193 - 199
-
A global-local approach for detecting hotspots in multiple-response regression
Journal article
Ruffieux H. et al, (2020), Annals of Applied Statistics, 14, 905 - 928
-
Context-specific regulation of surface and soluble IL7R expression by an autoimmune risk allele.
Journal article
Al-Mossawi H. et al, (2019), Nat Commun, 10
-
A genetics-led approach defines the drug target landscape of 30 immune-related traits.
Journal article
Fang H. et al, (2019), Nat Genet, 51, 1082 - 1091
-
Immunotherapy-associated bullous pemphigoid in advanced melanoma
Conference paper
Gupta A. et al, (2019), BRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, 180, E146 - E146
-
ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS ASSOCIATED POLYMORPHISM OF THE IL7R CONTROLS EXPRESSION SURFACE AND SOLUBLE IL7R-ALPHA DURING IN INFLAMMATION
Conference paper
Al-Mossawi H. et al, (2019), RHEUMATOLOGY, 58, 37 - 37
-
GENOTYPIC EFFECTS OF ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS ASSOCIATED IL7R POLYMORPHISMS ARE MEDIATED THROUGH MONOCYTES IN INFLAMMATION
Conference paper
Al-Mossawi MH. et al, (2018), ANNALS OF THE RHEUMATIC DISEASES, 77, 191 - 191