Benjamin Fairfax
BM BCh, MRCP, PhD
Professor of Cancer Immunogenetics
- 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
-
CMV serostatus is associated with improved survival and delayed toxicity onset following anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade
Milotay G. et al, (2025), Nature Medicine
-
Distinct immune cell infiltration patterns in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) exhibit divergent immune cell selection and immunosuppressive mechanisms.
Sivakumar S. et al, (2025), Nat Commun, 16
-
SCALABLE MULTIPLE NETWORK INFERENCE WITH THE JOINT GRAPHICAL HORSESHOE
Lingjærde C. et al, (2024), Annals of Applied Statistics, 18, 1899 - 1923
-
An isoform quantitative trait locus in SBNO2 links genetic susceptibility to Crohn's disease with defective antimicrobial activity.
Aschenbrenner D. et al, (2024), Nat Commun, 15
-
Characterization of the genetic determinants of context-specific DNA methylation in primary monocytes.
Gilchrist JJ. et al, (2024), Cell Genom, 4
-
Severe acute myositis and myocarditis on initiation of 6-weekly pembrolizumab post-COVID-19 mRNA vaccination.
Watson RA. et al, (2024), J Immunother Cancer, 12
-
A common NFKB1 variant detected through antibody analysis in UK Biobank predicts risk of infection and allergy.
Chong AY. et al, (2024), Am J Hum Genet, 111, 295 - 308
-
Cytomegalovirus infection protects against metastatic melanoma and modulates oncological outcome and toxicity to checkpoint immunotherapy
Milotay G. et al, (2024)