page_title: Shimon Slavin
section_title: Clinical accomplishments
hierarchical_section_title: Shimon Slavin / Clinical accomplishments
caption_attribution_description: English: Slavin
context_page_description: Shimon Slavin, M.D., is an Israeli professor of medicine. Slavin pioneered the use of immunotherapy mediated by allogeneic donor lymphocytes and innovative methods for stem cell transplantation for the cure of hematological malignancies and solid tumors, and using hematopoietic stem cells for induction of transplantation tolerance to bone marrow and donor allografts.
  More recently, he's been working on the use of multi-potent mesenchymal stem cells in regenerative medicine for the treatment of neurological, systemic and orthopedic disorders.
  He is currently serving as the medical and scientific director of Biotherapy International Center for Innovative Cancer Immunotherapy & Cellular Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel and as the medical director at Superinfection, a biotechnology company in Budapest, Hungary.
context_section_description: In the early 1987 Slavin introduced the concept of cancer immunotherapy using donor lymphocytes infusion (DLI) for the treatment and prevention of recurrent disease and pioneered the use of adoptive allogeneic cell-mediated immunotherapy and cytokine activated lymphocytes for both treatment and prevention of relapse following allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.
  These observations that confirmed the therapeutic benefits of cell therapy lead to development of new concepts for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors focusing on utilizing well-tolerated non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation as a platform for cell therapy of cancer targeting killer cells against chemotherapy-resistant malignant cells. Using procedures developed by Slavin and his team, treatment of cancer is based on smart rather than aggressive treatment with conventional chemotherapy, which is associated with immediate and late procedure-related toxicity and mortality, aiming at selective elimination of all malignant cells including cancer stem cells.
  As a rule, treatment of cancer focuses on a two-step approach: tumor debulking by conventional and innovative modalities, followed by immunotherapy of minimal residual disease. As such, innovative reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) or non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation (NST) were pioneered by Slavin for safer stem cell transplantation for treatment of malignant and life-threatening non-malignant disorders correctable by using stem cells and post-transplant immunotherapy if indicated for all patients in need. The use of RIC or NST made it possible to apply much safer curative stem cell transplantation for every patient in need with no lower or upper age restriction, including also patients with less than optimal clinical condition that would not be eligible for the standard myeloablative stem cell transplantation.
  Baxter International recognized the potential of cell therapy and signed an agreement which resulted in major investment with Slavin at Hadassah Medical Center for further development of new approaches based on cell therapy for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation based on new approaches for regulation rather than non-specific suppression of the immune system. Accordingly, Slavin's research center was established by Baxter International based in Chicago, USA and also supported by the Danny Cunniff Leukemia Research Center. Slavin was founder and director of this research center in 1994–2007.
  Slavin with his team using a vector provided by the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan pioneered the first successful use of gene therapy for treatment of bubble baby born with adenosine deaminase deficiency in 2002 and the treated infant has since then been off any treatment with no evidence of disease for more than 16 years. The same procedure was used by the team in Milan for successful treatment of many additional patients and all were cured by successful gene therapy.
  More recently, Slavin introduced the use of personalized anti-cancer immunotherapy focusing on the use of activated donor lymphocytes targeted against cancer with monoclonal and bispecific antibodies for efficient elimination of cancer in parallel with induction of long-lasting anti-cancer immunity for prevention of recurrent disease. The use of innovative cell-mediated immunotherapy is now applied in other centers for treatment of otherwise resistant cancer, such as in patients with triple negative breast cancer.
  In parallel with the growing activities of Slavin's center and his international impact in cell therapy, new approaches were developed for induction of transplantation tolerance of host-vs-graft and graft-vs-host towards developing improved methods for allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation as well as transplantation of cellular and perfused organ allografts. Initially, Slavin pioneered the use of monoclonal antibodies anti-CD52 (Alemtuzumab, now approved by FDA as Lemtrada) for prevention of graft-vs-host
caption: Prof. Slavin with Russian pathophysiologist prof. Sukhikh at International Oncology conference in Moscow in 2017
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