Ivana Gojo, M.D.

Headshot of Ivana Gojo
  • Co-Director, Leukemia Drug Development Program
  • Professor of Oncology
Female

Languages: English, Croatian

Expertise

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), Clinical Investigation, Clinical Trials, Experimental Therapeutics of Acute Leukemias, Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS), Myelodysplastic/Myeloproliferative Neoplasms ...read more

Research Interests

Novel Therapeutics for Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Acute Lymphoid Leukemia; Immunotherapy of Acute Leukemias ...read more

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Insurance Information

Main Phone

Outside of Maryland & Washington D.C.

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International Patients

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Locations

Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Appointment Phone: 410-955-8964
401 N. Broadway
Baltimore, MD 21231
Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center - Google Maps

The Bunting Blaustein Cancer Research Building

1650 Orleans Street
Baltimore, MD 21287
The Bunting Blaustein Cancer Research Building - Google Maps

Background

Dr. Ivana Gojo is a Hematologist/Oncologist in Baltimore. Her clinical focus is on diagnosis and management of patients with acute leukemias (AML, ALL) and other myeloid malignancies (MDS, MPNs, CML), with emphasis on the development of novel therapeutic approaches for these diseases. She is nationally and internationally recognized expert in clinical translation of novel therapeutics for acute leukemias and principal investigator on multiple multi-center investigator-initiated studies. Dr. Gojo joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 2012 as the Co-Director of Leukemia Drug Development Program. She has served on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Investigational Drug Steering Committee since 2014. Dr. Gojo received a Service Star Award from Johns Hopkins Medicine Service Excellence in 2018 for her exemplary care of leukemia patients.

Dr. Gojo contributed to the clinical translational and drug development effort of multiple novel agents targeting pathogenic pathways in patients with acute leukemia. Her research efforts are now concentrated on the development and integration of novel immunotherapies into therapeutic armamentarium for patients with acute leukemia. She mentors basic and clinical research fellows and junior faculty on the development and design of novel clinical trials and mechanistic laboratory studies associated with these trials. She served as a leukemia team leader on the National Institute of Health (NIH)/NCI N01 grant (Phase II consortium) (2009-2011), and is co-principal investigator (PI) on the Experimental Therapeutics (ET)-Clinical Trial Network (CTN) UM1 grant supporting early clinical trials. 

Dr. Gojo has served on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guideline panel for AML since 2019, Myeloid Growth Factor guideline panel since 2015 and previously served on the MPNs guideline panel (2016-2019). She has extensive experience in the regulatory aspects of drug development and served as the Chair (2015-2016) and Co-Chair (2014-2015) of the Cancer Research Review Committee at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Johns Hopkins, and serves as a member of the SKCCC Biostatistics Core Advisory Committee and SKCCC Clinical Research Office Coordinating Center Oversight Committee.

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Titles

  • Co-Director, Leukemia Drug Development Program
  • Professor of Oncology

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Education

Degrees

  • MD; University of Zagreb School of Medicine (1992)

Residencies

  • Internal Medicine; Lenox Hill Hospital (1998)

Fellowships

  • Hematology and Oncology; University of Maryland Medical Center (2001)

Research & Publications

Research Summary

Dr. Gojo’s research focuses on the development and bi-directional translation of novel preclinical studies and insights into innovative biology-based phase I/II clinical trials for patients with AML, ALL, and MDS, accompanied by correlative mechanistic/biologic studies utilizing primary patient samples.  She has contributed to the pre-clinical/clinical development of multiple novel therapies such as those targeting cell cycle (cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, cell cycle checkpoint inhibitors), signaling pathways (farnesyl transferase inhibitor, FLT3 inhibitors), differentiation (histone deacetylase inhibitors), as well as DNA repair pathway modifying agents (PARP inhibitors, T53 inhibitors)  in acute leukemias. Recently, her research efforts have focused on understanding the immune system in patients with AML and ALL and exploiting those findings to augment anti-leukemia immunity, as well as to address post-transplant relapses. Besides conducting several investigator initiated immunotherapeutic trials in acute leukemias, she leads multiple clinical-correlative studies aimed at unraveling the biological effects of different immunotherapies in collaboration with laboratory-based colleagues. 

Clinical Trial Keywords

AML; ALL; MDS; MPN; Acute and Chronic Leukemias; Myeloid Disorders and Bone Marrow Malignancies

Selected Publications

View all on PubMed

McCurdy SR, Iglehart BS, Batista DA, Gocke CD, Ning Y, Knaus HA, Jackson AM, Leffell MS, Luznik L, Gojo I. Loss of the mismatched human leukocyte antigen haplotype in two acute myelogenous leukemia relapses after haploidentical bone marrow transplantation with posttransplantation cyclophosphamide. Leukemia. 2016;30(10):2102-2106. PMID: 27211264

Gojo I, Beumer JH, Pratz KW, McDevitt MA, Baer MR, Blackford AL, Smith BD, Gore SD, Carraway H, Showel MM, Levis MJ, Dezern A, Gladstone DE, Ji JJ, Wang L, Kinders R, Pouquet M, Ali-Walbi I, Rudek MA, Poh W, Herman JG, Karnitz L, Kaufmann SH, Chen A, Karp J. A phase 1 study of the PARP inhibitor veliparib in combination with temozolomide in acute myeloid leukemia.  Clin Cancer Res. 2017;23(3):697-706. PMID: 27503200

Knaus HA, Berglund S, Hackl H, Blackford AL, Zeidner JF, Montiel-Esparza R, Mukhopadhyay R, Vanura K, Blazar BR, Karp JE, Luznik L, Gojo I. Signatures of CD8+ T cell dysfunction in AML patients and their reversibility with response to chemotherapy. JCI Insight. 2018;3(21):e120974. PMID: 30385732

Zeidner JF, Knaus HA, Zeidan AM, Blackford AL, Montiel-Esparza R, Hackl H, Prince GT, Gondek LP, Ghiaur G, Showel MM, DeZern AE, Pratz KW, Douglas Smith B, Levis MJ, Gore S, Coombs CC, Foster MC, Streicher H, Karp JE, Luznik L, Gojo I. Immunomodulation with pomalidomide at early lymphocyte recovery after induction chemotherapy in newly diagnosed AML and high-risk MDS. Leukemia. 2020 Jan 3. doi: 10.1038/s41375-019-0693-4. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31900407

Vago L, Gojo I. Immune escape and immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia. J Clin Invest. 2020;130(4): 1552-1564. doi: 10.1172/JCI129204. PMID:32235097

Activities & Honors

Honors

  • Best Doctors in America, 2008
  • Best Doctors in America, 2009
  • Faculty Teacher of the Year Award, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland, 2011
  • Johns Hopkins Service Start Winner, 2018

Memberships

  • American Society of Hematology, 1999
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2007
  • American Association for Cancer Research, 1999

Professional Activities

  • Co-Director, Leukemia Drug Development Program at Johns Hopkins, 2012
  • Member, Investigational Drug Steering Committee, National Cancer Institute, 2014
  • Chair, Cancer Research Review Committee, SKCCC at Johns Hopkins, 2015 - 2016
  • Co-Chair, Cancer Research Review Committee, SKCCC at Johns Hopkins, 2014 - 2015
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