Elad Sharon, MD, MPH

Elad Sharon, MD, MPH, is a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he is the Clinical and Translational Director of the Immunotherapy Toxicity Program and a Member of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  From 2011 through August 2023, Dr. Sharon served as a senior investigator in the Investigational Drug Branch of the NCI Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP).  In that role, he worked with academic and industry colleagues to develop promising new cancer therapies. His portfolio included antibody-drug conjugates, immune checkpoint inhibitors and other agents.  He also served as an attending physician in NCI Developmental Therapeutics Clinic. As part of his work in immunotherapy drug development, he has made a major effort to advance the understanding of immune-related adverse events, including the establishment of the Alliance-NIH irAE Biorepository, for which he continues to be the Medical Oncology Chair.  In addition, Dr. Sharon is the Co-Principal Investigator of the AIM-NIVO trial, evaluating the use of nivolumab for patients with pre-existing autoimmune disease.  From 2017 through 2023, Dr. Sharon served as the Co-Chair of the NCI Cancer Moonshot’s Adult Immunotherapy Implementation Team, through which oversaw the Immuno-Oncology Translational Network to help the NCI accelerate cancer care innovation.

While working for the NCI CTEP, Dr. Sharon assisted in the review, approval, management, and analysis of hundreds of clinical trials conducted within the NCI’s academic and community oncology networks, including trials within the ETCTN, SWOG, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, NRG, the Children’s Oncology Group, and ECOG-ACRIN.  In addition, Dr. Sharon oversaw several trials leading to FDA approvals, including two rare cancer trials whose results led to the approval of atezolizumab for advanced Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma and pembrolizumab for Merkel Cell Cancer.  Dr. Sharon has had interactions with dozens of pharmaceutical companies, hundreds of academic sites, as well as years of formal interactions with the FDA on behalf of the NCI.  Further, he has worked with several providers of data to evaluate real world evidence for use in drug development and patient safety analyses, through collaborations with the FDA, Friends of Cancer Research, and other stakeholders in the field.

In his new role, Dr. Sharon is seeking to develop innovative clinical trials to better understand the side effects associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapy agents.  He has been a national leader in this emerging field, conducting clinical and translational research for the NCI and DFCI, with impactful papers elucidating a mechanistic understanding of immune-related Adverse Events (irAEs) and their effect on overall patient well-being.  To this end, he is now the Medical Oncology Co-Chair of the Alliance Immuno-Oncology Toxicity (IOTOX) Working Group.  His efforts in immunotherapy drug development are also continuing, both at DFCI and nationally through the NCI-funded National Clinical Trials Network.

Dr. Sharon received his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 2003. He completed his internal medicine residency at Emory University in 2006 and his Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the NIH in 2011.  He obtained a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2009.