
Overview
As instructor of oncology and pediatrics, Llosa’s research focus is the immunotherapy of sarcomas. My research focuses on understanding how the immune system interacts with cancer cells from sarcoma tumors. Sarcoma is a type of cancer that can occur in various locations in the body. Sarcoma is the general term for a broad group of cancers that includes tumors that form in the bones and in the soft (also called connective) tissues. Sarcomas affect people of all ages and some, such as Rhabdomyosarcoma, Neuroblastoma, Ewings sarcoma and Osteosarcoma, are more common in children and young adults. Treatments for sarcoma vary depending on tumor type, location and other factors. I concentrate in the immunotherapy of sarcomas. Immunotherapy (also called biologic therapy or biotherapy) is a type of cancer treatment designed to boost the body's natural defenses to fight the cancer. It uses materials either made by the body or in a laboratory to improve, target, or restore immune system function. Immunotherapy works by stopping or slowing the growth of cancer cells, stopping cancer from spreading to other parts of the body, or helping the immune system increase its effectiveness at eliminating cancer cells. There are several types of immunotherapy, including monoclonal antibodies, non-specific immunotherapies, and cancer vaccines. My specific area of interest is the use of drugs that target immune system checkpoints. The immune system has checkpoints to keep itself from attacking other normal cells in the body. Cancer cells sometimes take advantage of these checkpoints to avoid being attacked by the immune system. CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 are checkpoint molecules found on immune system cells (T cells) that can be blocked with drugs leading to a general raise in the immune system of the patients which helps it attack cancer cells. These types of drugs are currently being given to patients with melanoma (skin cancer), lung cancer and kidney cancer with great success and they have been found to shrink advanced tumors in many people. The best part of the treatment is that many of these tumor responses have been long-lasting so far, and the side effects are generally less serious than when using chemotherapy. Larger clinical trials are now studying both drugs, both alone and/or in combination with other treatments. My task is and will continue to be using the same type of approach for attacking sarcomas and hopefully obtained the very promising results and long lasting responses observed with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in other types of cancer.
Dr. Llosa is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). His top areas of expertise are Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma, Osteosarcoma, Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, Ewing Sarcoma, and Bone Marrow Transplant.
His clinical research consists of co-authoring 42 peer reviewed articles and participating in 2 clinical trials. MediFind looks at clinical research from the past 15 years. In particular, he has co-authored 1 article in the study of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1).
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Locations
1800 Orleans Street, Bloomberg 11N, Bloomberg 11N, Baltimore, MD 21287
Additional Areas of Focus
Dr. Llosa has provided the following conditions as areas of focus. Please note that we may not have enough data to validate their experience in some of these conditions.
Clinical Research
Clinical research consists of overseeing clinical studies of patients undergoing new treatments and therapies, and publishing articles in peer reviewed medical journals. Providers who actively participate in clinical research are generally at the forefront of the fields and aware of the most up-to-date advances in treatments for their patients.
2 Clinical Trials
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Dr. Christine Pratilas is a pediatric medical oncologist at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Oncology, Pediatrics & Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She joined the Hopkins pediatric sarcoma team in 2014. Dr. Pratilas received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Drew University in New Jersey and her medical degree from UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now Rutgers University), where she also completed her internship and residency from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005 she was a fellow in hematology and oncology in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) Department of Pediatrics, and in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Neal Rosen’s Molecular Oncogenesis Laboratory at MSKCC. From 2006 to 2014 she was attending in Pediatric Oncology at MSKCC, specializing in developmental therapeutics & sarcoma. She has been the director of the pediatric sarcoma program at Hopkins since 2018. Dr. Pratilas focuses her research on cancer-associated pathways and signal transduction, which involves figuring out how a cell’s internal molecular pathways work, and how those pathways can be molecularly controlled. This knowledge is the basis for developing promising new molecularly targeted cancer therapies, which is the focus of Dr. Pratilas’s research. Among her important scientific contributions is advancing our understanding of how certain proteins that can be mutated in cancer, known as RAF kinases (specifically BRAF), affect a cancer cell’s behavior. The research in Dr. Pratilas' laboratory is focused on RAS signal transduction pathways, concentrating on pediatric sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, in order to develop novel therapeutics for children with these tumors. Dr. Pratilas is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). Her top areas of expertise are Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Neurofibromatosis, Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma, and Osteotomy.
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Dr. Kathryn Lemberg is an Assistant Professor of Oncology and Pediatrics at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her research, conducted with Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery, focuses on tumor metabolism and the development of new metabolic inhibitors to treat cancer. She has investigated novel glutamine antagonists in preclinical models of RAS-driven solid tumors. She is also interested in the effects of tumor metabolism on patient growth and development. Dr. Lemberg completed pediatrics residency training at Johns Hopkins and pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship training in the joint Johns Hopkins/National Cancer Institute program. She received her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Columbia University in New York, where her graduate research focused on ferroptosis, a novel oxidative cell death in cancer models. Dr. Lemberg sees pediatric and young adult sarcoma patients as part of the sarcoma team and has additional clinical focus on neurofibromatosis type I related solid tumors. Dr. Lemberg is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). Her top areas of expertise are Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Neurofibromatosis, and Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma.
Johns Hopkins Children's Center
Eric Raabe, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor of oncology and pathology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Raabe majored in neural science at Brown University and received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his pediatric internship and residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. After spending a year working in Africa as part of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative, Dr. Raabe joined Johns Hopkins as a pediatric oncology fellow. Working in the laboratory of Charles Eberhart in Neuropathology, Dr. Raabe established a neural stem cell system to create genetically accurate models of pediatric brain tumors. In collaboration with patients and families, he has also developed multiple pediatric brain tumor cell lines that are some of the key models used for pre-clinical testing. Dr. Raabe sees patients in the pediatric oncology outpatient clinic at Johns Hopkins, with a focus on pediatric brain tumors. Dr. Raabe is also the point person in oncology for retinoblastoma care. He continues his research in the new Smith Building of the Wilmer Eye Institute in the Neuropathology Division, in collaboration with Charles Eberhart. Dr. Raabe is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). His top areas of expertise are Rhabdoid Tumor, Diffuse Midline Glioma H3 K27M-Mutant, Glioma, and Pediatric Low-Grade Glioma (pLGG).
Areas of Expertise
MediFind evaluates expertise by pulling from factors such as number of articles a doctor has published in medical journals, participation in clinical trials, speaking at industry conferences, prescribing and referral patterns, and strength of connections with other experts in their field.
Learn more about MediFind’s expert tiers
- Advanced
- Adult Soft Tissue SarcomaDr. Llosa isAdvanced. Learn about Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma.
- Ewing SarcomaDr. Llosa isAdvanced. Learn about Ewing Sarcoma.
- Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor
- OsteosarcomaDr. Llosa isAdvanced. Learn about Osteosarcoma.
- RhabdomyosarcomaDr. Llosa isAdvanced. Learn about Rhabdomyosarcoma.
- Experienced
- Bone Marrow TransplantDr. Llosa isExperienced. Learn about Bone Marrow Transplant.
- Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD)Dr. Llosa isExperienced. Learn about Graft Versus Host Disease (GvHD).
- Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1)Dr. Llosa isExperienced. Learn about Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1).


