John Howard Sampson, M.D., Ph.D, M.B.A , M.H.S.c, is the chief of the department of neurosurgery at Duke University where he serves as a professor of surgery, biomedical engineering, immunology, and pathology.
B.Sc, University of Manitoba 1986
MD, University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine, 1990
PhD, Neuro-Oncology, Duke University Medical Center, 1994-1996
Residency: Neurosurgery, Duke University Medical Center, 1991-1998
Fellowship: Neurological Intensive Care, Duke University Medical Center, 1998
MHSc, Duke University, 2007
MBA, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, 2011
Work and research
Sampson has written a variety of papers, including a paper in Nature on his clinical trial on the treatment of glioblastoma patients and another in how tetanus toxoid and CCL3 improve dendritic cell vaccines in mice and glioblastoma patients. His current research activities involve the immunotherapeutic targeting of a tumor-specific mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor. Approaches used to target this tumor-specific epitope include unarmed and radiolabeled antibody therapy and cell mediated approaches using peptide vaccines and dendritic cells. Another area of interest involves drug delivery to brain tumors. Translational and clinical work is carried out in this area to formulate the relationship between various direct intratumoral infusion parameters and drug distribution within brain tumors and normal brain.
This laboratory has an emphasis on translational research in Neuro-Oncology. There are two main areas of study. The first is novel mechanisms of delivery of large molecular weight molecules, such as monoclonal antibodies, throughout brain intersitial space using novel intracerebral infusion techniques developed by this laboratory. Studies exploring this technology are undertaken in both small and large laboratory animals and patients with brain tumors.
The other focus of the laboratory is translational immunotherapy. In this line of work dendritic cell vaccination strategies and adoptive T-cell strategies have been developed to target novel and well-characterized tumor specific antigens in patients with brain tumors. This laboratory integrates well with and works closely with The Brain Tumor Center at Duke. This laboratory is well funded and currently holds seven NIH grants. There are a large number of investigators at various levels so that students will get exposure to various levels of research and mentorship.
Newly diagnosed or recurrent primary or metastic brain tumors, including enrollment in clinical trials of new therapeutic agents (especially oncolytic poliovirus therapy, immunotherapy, vaccines and convection-enhanced delivery); posterior fossa tumors, such as acoustic neuromas or meningiomas; microsurgery for tic douloureux or trigeminal neuralgia, including microvascular decompression; microvascular decompression for hemifacial spasm, pituitary tumors, complex skull-base tumors; radiosurgery; evaluation and surgery for patients with the full spectrum of other neurosurgery pathologies.
John Sampson has appeared on 60 Minutes and many other news networks for his work with glioblastoma cancer treatments.
Papers and publications
Babu, R; Thomas, S; Hazzard, MA; Friedman, AH; Sampson, JH; Adamson, C; Zomorodi, AR; Haglund, MM; Patil, CG; Boakye, M; Lad, SP. Worse outcomes for patients undergoing brain tumor and cerebrovascular procedures following the ACGME resident duty-hour restrictions. Journal of neurosurgery. 2014;121:262-276.
Batich, KA; Sampson, JH. Standard of care and future pharmacological treatment options for malignant glioma: an urgent need for screening and identification of novel tumor-specific antigens. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy. 2014;15:2047-2061.
Choi, BD; Suryadevara, CM; Gedeon, PC; Herndon Ii, JE; Sanchez-Perez, L; Bigner, DD; Sampson, JH. Intracerebral delivery of a third generation EGFRvIII-specific chimeric antigen receptor is efficacious against human glioma. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience. 2014;21:189-190.
Kanaly, CW; Mehta, AI; Ding, D; Hoang, JK; Kranz, PG; Herndon, JE; Coan, A; Crocker, I; Waller, AF; Friedman, AH; Reardon, DA; Sampson, JH. A novel, reproducible, and objective method for volumetric magnetic resonance imaging assessment of enhancing glioblastoma. Journal of neurosurgery. 2014;121:536-542.
Miao, H; Choi, BD; Suryadevara, CM; Sanchez-Perez, L; Yang, S; De Leon, G; Sayour, EJ; McLendon, R; Herndon, JE; Healy, P; Archer, GE; Bigner, DD; Johnson, LA; Sampson, JH. EGFRvIII-specific chimeric antigen receptor T cells migrate to and kill tumor deposits infiltrating the brain parenchyma in an invasive xenograft model of glioblastoma. PloS one. 2014;9:e94281.
Nair, SK; De Leon, G; Boczkowski, D; Schmittling, R; Xie, W; Staats, J; Liu, R; Johnson, LA; Weinhold, K; Archer, GE; Sampson, JH; Mitchell, DA. Recognition and killing of autologous, primary glioblastoma tumor cells by human cytomegalovirus pp65-specific cytotoxic T cells. Clinical Cancer Research. 2014;20:2684-2694.
Sampson, JH; Choi, BD; Sanchez-Perez, L; Suryadevara, CM; Snyder, DJ; Flores, CT; Schmittling, RJ; Nair, SK; Reap, EA; Norberg, PK; Herndon Ii, JE; Kuan, C-T; Morgan, RA; Rosenberg, SA; Johnson, LA. EGFRvIII mCAR-modified T-cell therapy cures mice with established intracerebral glioma and generates host immunity against tumor-antigen loss. Clinical Cancer Research. 2014;20:972-984.
Swartz, AM; Li, QJ; Sampson, JH. Rindopepimut: a promising immunotherapeutic for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme. Immunotherapy. 2014;6:679-690.
Asaoka, K; Barrs, DM; Sampson, JH; McElveen, JT; Tucci, DL; Fukushima, T. Intracanalicular meningioma mimicking vestibular schwannoma. American Journal of Neuroradiology. 2002;23:1493-1496.
Heimberger, AB; Archer, GE; Crotty, LE; McLendon, RE; Friedman, AH; Friedman, HS; Bigner, DD; Sampson, JH. Dendritic cells pulsed with a tumor-specific peptide induce long-lasting immunity and are effective against murine intracerebral melanoma. Neurosurgery. 2002;50:158-164.
Heimberger, AB; Learn, CA; Archer, GE; McLendon, RE; Chewning, TA; Tuck, FL; Pracyk, JB; Friedman, AH; Friedman, HS; Bigner, DD; Sampson, JH. Brain tumors in mice are susceptible to blockade of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) with the oral, specific, EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor ZD1839 (iressa). Clinical Cancer Research. 2002;8:3496-3502.
Lal, A; Glazer, CA; Martinson, HM; Friedman, HS; Archer, GE; Sampson, JH; Riggins, GJ. Mutant epidermal growth factor receptor up-regulates molecular effectors of tumor invasion. Cancer Research. 2002;62:3335-3339.
Quinn, JA; Pluda, J; Dolan, ME; Delaney, S; Kaplan, R; Rich, JN; Friedman, AH; Reardon, DA; Sampson, JH; Colvin, OM; Haglund, MM; Pegg, AE; Moschel, RC; McLendon, RE; Provenzale, JM; Gururangan, S; Tourt-Uhlig, S; Herndon, JE; Bigner, DD; Friedman, HS. Phase II trial of carmustine plus O(6)-benzylguanine for patients with nitrosourea-resistant recurrent or progressive malignant glioma. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2002;20:2277-2283.
Reardon, DA; Akabani, G; Coleman, RE; Friedman, AH; Friedman, HS; Herndon, JE; Cokgor, I; McLendon, RE; Pegram, CN; Provenzale, JM; Quinn, JA; Rich, JN; Regalado, LV; Sampson, JH; Shafman, TD; Wikstrand, CJ; Wong, TZ; Zhao, XG; Zalutsky, MR; Bigner, DD. Phase II trial of murine (131)I-labeled antitenascin monoclonal antibody 81C6 administered into surgically created resection cavities of patients with newly diagnosed malignant gliomas. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2002;20:1389-1397.
Wikstrand, CJ; Cole, VR; Crotty, LE; Sampson, JH; Bigner, DD. Generation of anti-idiotypic reagents in the EGFRvIII tumor-associated antigen system. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. 2002;50:639-652.
Sampson, JH; Archer, GE; Villavicencio, AT; McLendon, RE; Friedman, AH; Bishop, WR; Bigner, DD; Friedman, HS. Treatment of neoplastic meningitis with intrathecal temozolomide. Clinical Cancer Research. 1999;5:1183-1188.
Sampson, JH; Carter, JH; Friedman, AH; Seigler, HF. Demographics, prognosis, and therapy in 702 patients with brain metastases from malignant melanoma. Journal of neurosurgery. 1998;88:11-20.
Sampson, JH; Archer, GE; Ashley, DM; Fuchs, HE; Hale, LP; Dranoff, G; Bigner, DD. Subcutaneous vaccination with irradiated, cytokine-producing tumor cells stimulates CD8+ cell-mediated immunity against tumors located in the "immunologically privileged" central nervous system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 1996;93:10399-10404.
