Immunotherapy has opened a new frontier in cancer treatment and has improved survival for many patients with metastatic melanoma and other aggressive cancers. The field of immunotherapy is exciting and fast-evolving, however there remain a number of critical questions regarding predictors of immunotherapy response and treatment-related toxicity.  The Thompson Lab is actively engaged in this field broadly, and focused specifically on cancer neoepitope prediction and genomic correlates of immunotherapy response and toxicity. The lab has multiple active projects ongoing, from development of novel software tools and algorithms to analysis of large immunotherapy datasets to clinical informatics based investigations of cancer outcomes.

Lung cancer screening of high-risk individuals has been shown to improve survival in the population, and can lead to earlier diagnosis, earlier stage migration, and more effective treatment for the disease.  However, there are many outstanding issues and opportunities for improving lung cancer outcomes.  In conjunction with The Knight Cancer Institute's, Center for Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR), the Thompson Lab is investigating biomarkers for early detection of lung cancer and lung cancer outcomes prediction.

 Dr. Thompson serves as a co-leader of the Portland VA's Clinical Data Science Research Group (CDSRG).  Within the scope of the CDSRG, the Thompson Lab is actively investigating patterns of cancer care and long-term patient outcomes within the VA, particularly as related to radiotherapy.