# Alexander Drilon
**Alexander Edward Dela Cruz Drilon**[1](https://www.doximity.com/pub/alexander-edward-drilon-md) is a thoracic medical oncologist and physician-scientist at [Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center](https://www.edgepedia.org/memorial-sloan-kettering-cancer-center) (MSK) in New York, where he is Chief of the Early Drug Development Service.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) His work centers on cancers of the chest, including lung, tracheal, and thymic cancers, and on early-phase trials of targeted drugs for tumors driven by identifiable gene alterations.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) According to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he led the registrational trials that supported [Food and Drug Administration](https://www.edgepedia.org/food-and-drug-administration) (FDA) approvals of selpercatinib in RET-driven cancers, repotrectinib in ROS1-positive lung cancer, and zenocutuzumab in NRG1 fusion-positive (cancer driven by a gene fusion involving NRG1) cancer.[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field | Thoracic medical oncology; early drug development[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) |
| Position | Chief, Early Drug Development Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, 2026–[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) • [4](https://vivo.weill.cornell.edu/display/cwid-aed2004) |
| Training | B.S. 1999 and M.D. 2004, University of the Philippines; internal medicine residency, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center; medical oncology fellowship, MSK[4](https://vivo.weill.cornell.edu/display/cwid-aed2004) • [2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) |
| Signature work | Selpercatinib in RET fusion-positive NSCLC (NEJM, 2020); repotrectinib in ROS1 fusion-positive NSCLC (NEJM, 2024)[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653) • [5](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2ns0b4jk/qt2ns0b4jk_noSplash_6c47ed995232266907065ce52d06684d.pdf?t=sq2jft) |
| Regulatory impact | FDA approvals of selpercatinib (2020, expanded 2022), repotrectinib (November 15, 2023), and zenocutuzumab-zbco (December 2024) rest on trials he led[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653) • [6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326972/) • [7](https://www.partnertx.com/zenocutuzumab-treatment-beyond-progression-demonstrates-continued-benefit-in-patients-with-nrg1-non-small-cell-lung-cancer-new-results-from-the-enrgy-trial/) |
| Key result | LIBRETTO-431: first-line selpercatinib extended median progression-free survival to 24.8 months versus 11.2 months with chemotherapy[8](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10698285/) |
## Education and career
According to an ASCO Publications podcast, Drilon is from the Philippines, where he earned a B.S. in 1999 and an M.D. from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in 2004.[9](https://ascopubs.org/do/larotrectinib-trk-fusion-positive-lung-cancer) He moved to the United States for an internal medicine residency at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, then affiliated with Columbia, and completed a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering, where he subspecialized in lung cancer.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) • [9](https://ascopubs.org/do/larotrectinib-trk-fusion-positive-lung-cancer)
According to an IASLC interview, by July 2019 he was an Associate Attending Physician and Clinical Director of MSK's Early Drug Development Service.[10](https://www.iaslc.org/iaslc-news/lung-cancer-considered/ngs-testing-participation-and-funding-clinical-trials-dr) He now serves as Chief of that service and is a member of the Thoracic Oncology Service and the Developmental Therapeutics group.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) In 2026 he took up an appointment as Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.[4](https://vivo.weill.cornell.edu/display/cwid-aed2004)
## Clinical practice and research focus
As an early drug development specialist, Drilon tests new drugs in clinical trials, particularly for patients whose standard treatments have been exhausted.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon) His research targets lung cancers driven by actionable gene fusions, including RET, ROS1, NRG1, and NTRK (which produces TRK fusions). RET fusions occur in roughly 2% of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 10 to 20% of several thyroid cancer subtypes.[11](https://lilly.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/new-england-journal-medicine-publishes-phase-12-data-retevmotm) The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer has described him as being at the forefront of developing biomarker-driven targeted therapies for advanced NSCLC.[10](https://www.iaslc.org/iaslc-news/lung-cancer-considered/ngs-testing-participation-and-funding-clinical-trials-dr)
## Representative work
According to the NEJM 2024 deposit *Repotrectinib in ROS1 Fusion-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer*, TRIDENT-1 was the phase 2 registrational trial of a second-generation ROS1 inhibitor.[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653) In the LIBRETTO-001 study of selpercatinib in RET fusion-positive NSCLC, among the first 105 patients previously treated with platinum chemotherapy, the objective response rate was 64%, with a median response duration of 17.5 months.[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653) In the LIBRETTO-001 study of selpercatinib, among patients with measurable brain metastases, the intracranial response rate was 91%.[3](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653) A companion 2020 paper reported efficacy of selpercatinib in RET-altered thyroid cancers.[4](https://vivo.weill.cornell.edu/display/cwid-aed2004)
[Repotrectinib in *ROS1* fusion–positive non–small-cell lung cancer](https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2302299) (NEJM, 2024) reported TRIDENT-1, a trial of the ROS1 inhibitor repotrectinib.[5](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2ns0b4jk/qt2ns0b4jk_noSplash_6c47ed995232266907065ce52d06684d.pdf?t=sq2jft) In patients who had never received a ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), the response rate was about 79%, with median progression-free survival of about 35.7 months.[5](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2ns0b4jk/qt2ns0b4jk_noSplash_6c47ed995232266907065ce52d06684d.pdf?t=sq2jft) In about 45 patients pretreated with a ROS1 TKI, the response rate was roughly 30%; among some 15 patients with the G2032R resistance mutation it was about 50%.[5](https://escholarship.org/content/qt2ns0b4jk/qt2ns0b4jk_noSplash_6c47ed995232266907065ce52d06684d.pdf?t=sq2jft)
According to the zenocutuzumab registrational report in the *New England Journal of Medicine* (2025), he was its first author.[12](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2405008) In the eNRGy study of zenocutuzumab, a bispecific antibody directed against NRG1 fusion-positive tumors, 204 patients across 12 tumor types were treated; among 158 with measurable disease, the overall response rate was 30%, including 29% in NSCLC and 42% in pancreatic cancer.[12](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2405008) He was instrumental in the development of larotrectinib for TRK fusion-positive cancers, and in his account it became the first tumor-agnostic approval of a targeted therapy by any regulatory body.[9](https://ascopubs.org/do/larotrectinib-trk-fusion-positive-lung-cancer)
## Impact on treatment and approvals
Drilon was principal investigator of LIBRETTO-001, described by MSK as the largest trial ever reported in patients with RET-driven cancers.[13](https://www.mskcc.org/news/targeted-therapy-selpercatinib-approved-lung-and-thyroid-cancers-ret-gene-mutations-fusions) The FDA approved selpercatinib on the basis of that trial and, on September 21, 2022, expanded the approval to adults with any locally advanced or metastatic solid tumor carrying a RET fusion that had not responded to other treatments.[13](https://www.mskcc.org/news/targeted-therapy-selpercatinib-approved-lung-and-thyroid-cancers-ret-gene-mutations-fusions) On November 15, 2023, the FDA granted traditional approval to repotrectinib for adults with locally advanced or metastatic ROS1-positive NSCLC, citing TRIDENT-1 responses of 79% in TKI-naïve patients and activity after progression on prior ROS1 TKIs and in resistance mutations.[6](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326972/) Zenocutuzumab-zbco received FDA accelerated approval in December 2024 for NRG1 fusion-positive NSCLC and pancreatic adenocarcinoma after prior systemic therapy.[7](https://www.partnertx.com/zenocutuzumab-treatment-beyond-progression-demonstrates-continued-benefit-in-patients-with-nrg1-non-small-cell-lung-cancer-new-results-from-the-enrgy-trial/)
His trial-first approach has also been tested against the older sequencing strategy of starting with chemotherapy. In the randomized phase 3 LIBRETTO-431 trial, first-line selpercatinib produced a median progression-free survival of 24.8 months versus 11.2 months with platinum chemotherapy with or without pembrolizumab.[8](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10698285/)
## Recent developments
Final LIBRETTO-001 analysis, published in the *Journal of Clinical Oncology* with roughly 38 to 43 months of follow-up, confirmed an objective response rate of 62% in 247 pretreated and 83% in 69 treatment-naïve patients; median overall survival reached 47.6 months in pretreated patients and was not reached in the treatment-naïve group.[14](https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO-24-02076) At the 2025 World Conference on Lung Cancer, Drilon presented ARROS-1 results for zidesamtinib in ROS1-altered advanced NSCLC: a 44% response rate in 90+ TKI-pretreated patients and, in a first disclosure for about 30 TKI-naïve patients, about 90% including about three complete responses.[15](https://www.ilcn.org/arros-1-findings-reinforce-potential-of-zidesamtinib-in-pretreated-ros1-altered-nsclc/) His listed ongoing trials include phase 3 studies of neladalkib (NVL-655) versus alectinib and of taletrectinib versus placebo after complete tumor removal in NSCLC.[2](https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon)
## References
1. Dr. Alexander Edward Drilon, MD, Doximity profile. https://www.doximity.com/pub/alexander-edward-drilon-md
2. Alexander Drilon, MD, MSK physician profile. https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/doctors/alexander-drilon
3. Efficacy of Selpercatinib in RET Fusion–Positive Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer, NEJM 2020. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2005653
4. Drilon, Alexander, Weill Cornell VIVO. https://vivo.weill.cornell.edu/display/cwid-aed2004
5. Repotrectinib in ROS1 Fusion-Positive Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (TRIDENT-1), NEJM 2024 (repository deposit). https://escholarship.org/content/qt2ns0b4jk/qt2ns0b4jk_noSplash_6c47ed995232266907065ce52d06684d.pdf?t=sq2jft
6. FDA Approval Summary: Repotrectinib for ROS1-positive NSCLC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11326972/
7. Zenocutuzumab Treatment Beyond Progression, eNRGy results, Partner Therapeutics, February 2026. https://www.partnertx.com/zenocutuzumab-treatment-beyond-progression-demonstrates-continued-benefit-in-patients-with-nrg1-non-small-cell-lung-cancer-new-results-from-the-enrgy-trial/
8. First-Line Selpercatinib or Chemotherapy and Pembrolizumab in RET Fusion–Positive NSCLC (LIBRETTO-431). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10698285/
9. Larotrectinib for TRK Fusion-Positive Lung Cancer, ASCO Publications podcast. https://ascopubs.org/do/larotrectinib-trk-fusion-positive-lung-cancer
10. NGS Testing & Participation and Funding in Clinical Trials with Dr. Alexander Drilon, IASLC. https://www.iaslc.org/iaslc-news/lung-cancer-considered/ngs-testing-participation-and-funding-clinical-trials-dr
11. NEJM Publishes Phase 1/2 Data for Retevmo (selpercatinib), Eli Lilly press release. https://lilly.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/new-england-journal-medicine-publishes-phase-12-data-retevmotm
12. Efficacy of Zenocutuzumab in NRG1 Fusion–Positive Cancer, NEJM 2025. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2405008
13. Targeted Therapy Selpercatinib Approved for Lung and Thyroid Cancers, MSK News. https://www.mskcc.org/news/targeted-therapy-selpercatinib-approved-lung-and-thyroid-cancers-ret-gene-mutations-fusions
14. Selpercatinib in RET Fusion–Positive NSCLC: Final Safety and Efficacy from LIBRETTO-001, Journal of Clinical Oncology. https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO-24-02076
15. ARROS-1 Findings Reinforce Potential of Zidesamtinib in Pretreated ROS1-Altered NSCLC, ILCN, September 23, 2025. https://www.ilcn.org/arros-1-findings-reinforce-potential-of-zidesamtinib-in-pretreated-ros1-altered-nsclc/
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Medical and health researchers › Researchers in cancer biology and oncology research › Medical oncology and chemotherapy drug development › Thoracic and head and neck cancers*
*Initially written Sep 20, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license