Margaret SHIPP

Margaret A. Shipp, MD, is Chief of the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Director of the Lymphoma Research Center at DFCI and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Shipp’s clinical and laboratory research focuses on the clinical and molecular heterogeneity of the large B-cell lymphomas (LBCLs) and Hodgkin lymphomas. Dr. Shipp coordinated the development of the International Prognostic Index which is used worldwide to individualize treatment approaches to LBCLs and many other lymphoid malignancies. More recently, she has led efforts to define molecular signatures of LBCLs and Hodgkin lymphomas, identify biologically distinct subsets of these diseases, and characterize associated rational treatment targets including modulators of the host anti-tumor immune response. The Shipp group defined recurrent copy gains of chromosome 9p24.1 and associated over-expression of the PD-1 ligands as a targetable genetic basis of immune evasion in classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). In associated clinical trials, patients with cHL had the highest reported rates of any tumor type to PD-1 blockade, leading to rapid FDA approval of this modality and ongoing studies in the frontline setting.  The group has also defined mechanisms of response and resistance to PD-1 blockade in this largely MHC class I-negative tumor. Dr. Shipp is the recipient of numerous awards including an American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award, a Leukemia Society of America Scholar Award, a Dana-Farber Morse Research Award, designation as a Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America, and a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist and membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians and the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine), the Gianni Bonadonna Memorial Lecture at the Fourteenth International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML), the John Ultmann Award for Contributions to Lymphoma Research and Treatment, the DFCI Medical Oncology Discovery Award and the San Salvatore Award at the Seventeenth ICML. Dr. Shipp received her Doctor of Medicine from Washington University School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine internship and residency at Barnes Hospital/Washington University.  Thereafter, she completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at DFCI and joined the faculty.