Sandra Demaria, M.D., is Professor of Radiation Oncology and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. She obtained her M.D. from the University of Turin, Italy, and then moved to New York City for her post-doctoral training in immunology, followed by a residency in anatomic pathology at NYU School of Medicine (1997-2001). Dr. Demaria is internationally known for her pioneering studies demonstrating the synergy of radiation with immunotherapy. She was the first to show that focal radiation therapy can overcome the resistance of poorly immunogenic tumors to immune checkpoint inhibitors, a finding later translated in clinical trials. Seminal findings from her lab include the demonstration that radiation upregulates the expression of chemokines that attract effector T cells to the tumor, activates canonical pathways of viral defense eliciting interferon production, and enhances the presentation of mutational neoantigens. In addition, she has tested in preclinical models several immune modulators in combination with radiation, providing the rationale for clinical testing. She has served as the Chair of the AACR Cancer Immunology Working Group and as a member of the board of the Society for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and the Radiation Research Society (RRS). She currently serves as senior editor for Cancer Immunology Research and the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer and is Vice-President Elect of SITC. 

As a breast cancr pathologist, Dr. Demaria played a fundamental role in establishing the original guidelines for the evaluation of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in breast cancer (Ann Oncol 2015, 26(2):259-71) and was a founding member of the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarker Working Group on Breast Cancer (https://www.tilsinbreastcancer.org/) that developed a consensus for the evaluation of TILs in breast cancer. She has continued to work with the group to validate the evaluation of TILs as a predictive and prognostic marker in breast cancer.

Dr. Demaria’s responsibilities lie in the performance of diagnostic breast pathology, including support of the clinical, research, and educational missions of the Breast Pathology Service through resident and fellow education, tumor board participation, consensus conference attendance, and translational research initiatives. This includes the coverage of clinical activities related to affiliated sites among the New York-Presbyterian/ Cornell enterprise.