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Interventional Oncology

Interventional Oncology (INTO) at Johnson & Johnson is a convergent Research & Development group built on the foundation of the Company’s Lung Cancer Initiative. The team is driven to improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer, where the greatest unmet needs exist, in addition to adjacent cancer types. The group is focused on uniting J&J’s Innovative Medicine and MedTech expertise to develop best-in-class therapies delivered directly into tumors via minimally invasive procedures.
An illustration of a drug being injected into a tumor

Why intratumoral therapy?

Intratumoral therapy has several benefits that can help address clinical unmet needs along the patient journey with the goal of:

Minimizing toxicity

Make possible a better risk-benefit proposition especially for treatment of early cancer

Increasing efficacy

Provide higher concentrations of local therapy to kill the tumor and activate anti-tumor immunity

Unlocking new therapies

Enable the use of immunotherapies, which cannot be delivered systemically

Our approach

We believe that successful intratumoral delivery will require novel therapies and the integration of best-in-class delivery procedures. INTO unites unique convergent J&J Innovative Medicine and MedTech expertise with a multi-disciplinary team that includes:

Clinical expertise

Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Interventional Pulmonology, Interventional Radiology and Thoracic Surgery

Scientific expertise

From Discovery to Late-Stage Clinical Development such as Pharmaceutical and Engineering Sciences, Biomarker Research and AI/Data Sciences

Engineering expertise

To maximize efficacy, minimize user variability and enable scale

Partner with us

Our INTO team is seeking external innovations to further our intratumoral portfolio in the following areas:

Innovative intratumoral therapies

New approaches may incorporate cytotoxic agents (ideally immunogenic cell death inducers), immunostimulatory energy or agents, radio-enhancers/sensitizers and cell therapies. We seek to expand the use of controlled release and localized depot drug delivery technologies, including small molecule, protein, and RNA delivery approaches.

Integrated delivery procedure solutions

Developing, expanding and fine-tuning new technologies will empower our INTO team and its partners to plan, deliver, monitor and confirm success of intratumoral therapy delivery.

Contact us

We are seeking external innovations to further our intratumoral portfolio. Contact us for partnership opporunities.

Who we are

  • Avi Spira, M.D., MSc

    Avi Spira, M.D., M.Sc.

    Global Head, Interventional Oncology
  • Phillippe Szapary, Ph.D.

    Philippe Szapary, M.D., M.S.C.E.

    Clinical Development & Scientific Affairs Head, Interventional Oncology
  • Hannah McEwen, Ph.D.

    Hannah McEwen, Ph.D.

    Head of Engineering, Interventional Oncology
  • Stewart Bates

    Stewart Bates, Ph.D.

    Interim Head of Discovery and Translational Sciences for Interventional Oncology
  • Stephen Pitt

    Stephen Pitt, Ph.D.

    Global Head of External Innovation, Interventional Oncology
  • Lisa Berry

    Lisa Berry

    Global Head of Strategy & Operations, Interventional Oncology

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