Bilal Anouti, MD

Research Program

• Translational Research in Malignancy (TRIM)

Email

bilal.anouti( at )northwestern.edu

Cancer-Focused Research

I am currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology at Northwestern University focusing on Thoracic Oncology and immunotherapy resistance. I am the PI of several trials in both the DTI and thoracic oncology group. My interest in the field of medical oncology began early in medical school leading to the pursuit of a research fellowship at the American University of Beirut shortly after my graduation. This experience allowed me to be involved with a multitude of international clinical trials such as Checkmate 227, mainly centered around lung cancer and immunotherapy, as a coordinator and sub-investigator. I also had the opportunity to write the proposal for a principal investigator led clinical trial under the supervision of my mentor Dr. Arafat Tfayli involving avelumab in the neoadjuvant setting for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients. I then went on to complete my residency and chief residency at Indiana University where I continued to sharpen my clinical research skills including proposal writing, national and local conference presentations, manuscript writing and submission as well as data collection and analysis. I was mainly involved in lung cancer research under the mentorship of Dr. Nasser Hanna as well as testicular cancer research with Dr. Nabil Adra as my mentor. These activities allowed me to participate in conferences such as ASCO, IASLC and GU ASCO during my residency and to publish original peer-reviewed manuscripts and abstracts. I completed my Oncology fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. My interest in immunotherapy interventions and their side effect profile grew during my time at Anderson. With the mentorship of Dr. Adi Diab, Associate Professor of the melanoma department at MD Anderson Cancer Center specializing in immunology, as well as the backing and resources of one of the best cancer centers in the nation, I worked to build the foundations of an academic clinician investigator career specialized in immunotherapy toxicity as well as resistance. Through my work with Dr. Diab, I was able to attend the ASCO/AACR Method in Clinic Cancer Research Workshop and held a 2024 Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award for funding of a project looking into adding tocilizumab, an IL-6 inhibitor, to combination ipilimumab and nivolumab in melanoma patients to reduce grade 3 and 4 toxicities. This project has the potential to impact the standard of care by allowing less patients to be taken off therapy for serious ICI toxicities and laying the foundation to evaluate the use of IL-6 blockade combination with ICI therapy in other solid tumors. During my time at Northwestern University, I have begun collaborating with various labs at our institution focused on immunotherapy resistance in non-small cell lung cancer, particularly within the locally advanced cohort of patients that fail to achieve major pathologic response following the use of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting. I have authored several investigator-initiated trials in various staged of development and through collaboration with basic science labs at NU.