What tips the scale between immune activation and unintended harm? This question sits at the heart of immunotherapy, where the power to eliminate cancer can also trigger serious immune-related adverse events (irAEs). Joseph Van Galen, MD, a hematology/oncology fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA, is investigating the mechanisms behind this delicate balance. His research focuses on how immune checkpoint inhibitors can provoke off-target effects and what happens to T cells once immunosuppressive therapy is introduced to manage irAEs.
Laying the Groundwork
“There’s quite a bit of information out there to guide biomarker development before patients begin immunotherapy, helping to predict who may develop irAEs,” Dr. Van Galen told Blood Cancers Today. “But there has been less study of what happens once patients already have immune-related needs, especially when it comes to predictive or prognostic biomarkers after treatment has started.”
A major advantage of Dr. Van Galen’s current work is his background in translational research, which provides him with a unique opportunity to establish a foundation for future clinical studies that aim to explore irAEs more comprehensively. “The power of translational research lies in the fact that both clinical and laboratory researchers must be involved to cover the full spectrum of methodologies,” he explained. This collaboration enables more targeted questions, grounded in both patient experience and molecular science.
“Translational projects require more in-depth, collaborative approaches to answer clinically meaningful questions,” he added.
This emphasis on clinically meaningful outcomes naturally leads to the next phase of this research, which involves conducting studies that directly engage patients and aim to translate these insights into real-world care strategies.
The Next Phase
As research in immunotherapy and cellular therapies continues to advance, Dr. Van Galen emphasizes the importance of two parallel approaches: developing entirely new, more tolerable therapies and maximizing the impact of existing ones. He sees a critical opportunity for deeper collaboration among immunologists, oncologists, and geneticists, not just to innovate, but to better understand how current treatments affect different patients. This kind of collaboration, he notes, is especially powerful in research environments that tightly integrate clinical and laboratory teams.
Dr. Van Galen said, “We’ve seen real progress in developing therapies that are more effective and better tolerated, especially in diseases like multiple myeloma, creating new treatment opportunities even for older and frailer patients…There’s enormous opportunity to enlist patients in understanding why immunotherapies work for some and cause toxicities in others and to use that insight to guide how we use the therapies already available.”
Dr. Van Galen’s work represents a crucial step toward understanding and optimizing immunotherapy, with the ultimate goal of delivering safer, more effective treatments to patients.
Dr. Van Galen is a graduating chief fellow in hematology and medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where his clinical focus lies in the treatment of hematologic malignancies and the use of immunotherapies, including allogeneic transplantation and cellular therapies. His academic foundation began with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, followed by research experience at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During his internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia, he also earned a Master of Science in Clinical Research.
His research interests span clinical trial design, translational collaborations, and retrospective methodologies, with many projects developed alongside co-fellows and internal medicine residents. In recognition of his work, Dr. Van Galen was named a 2025 recipient of the Young Investigator Award from ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation. The award includes a $50,000 1-year grant to support his ongoing research, which is being conducted under the mentorship of Matthew Zibelman, MD, and co-leadership of Johnathan Whetstine, PhD, and Hayan Lee, PhD, at Fox Chase.
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