Jason Luke, MD, Named Associate Director of Clinical Research

After a national search and with approval of the External Advisory Board, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center is pleased to announce Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, has been appointed the Associate Director (AD) of Clinical Research.

Dr. Luke served as the interim AD for the last year and Hillman is delighted to have him continuing in this role and working closely with Clinical Research Service (CRS) leadership and staff to roll out new initiatives designed to enhance our clinical trial accruals and portfolio management.

Dr. Luke is a medical oncologist and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as well as the director of UPMC Hillman’s Immunotherapy and Drug Development Center (IDDC). He focuses on the care of patients with melanoma as well as other cancers whose disease has progressed beyond standard therapy.

His recent accomplishments include serving as PI of the practice-changing Phase I KEYNOTE-716 trial, for which he coordinated the efforts of an international team of investigators from 159 test sites that led to novel findings regarding the benefit of adjuvant pembrolizumab in resected melanoma – a finding that was published in the international renowned journal, Lancet.

Since Dr. Luke arrived at Pitt in 2019, he has published more than 100 PubMed indexed manuscripts and overall has more than 175 publications with a Google Scholar h-index of 53. He also has been successful at pursuing industrial partnerships, is an inventor on two patents related to prediction of immunotherapy responsiveness, and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Melanoma Research Foundation’s 2018 Humanitarian Award and an Ascending Star Award, the highest honor Pitt Health Sciences bestows on highly productive mid-career faculty.

Dr. Luke earned his MD at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science at the Chicago Medical School. He completed his residency at Boston University Medical Center and Fellowships in Medicine and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2012, he joined Dana Farber Cancer Institute as a Staff Physician and, in 2014, was recruited to the University of Chicago, where he served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Hematology/Oncology.