mid-2012, we formed the International Immuno-Oncology Network, an inno- vative academic research collabora- tion with 10 leading cancer research centers around the world. 

“The science of immuno-oncology is evolving very rapidly, and to stay at the forefront, we streamlined the process of engaging academic lead- ers,” Lonberg says. “After all, we don’t have a monopoly on science within 

Maureen O’Grady 

Bristol-Myers Squibb. This network allows us to leverage the best science from around the world while also more efficiently conducting clinical experi- ments. The network will help us make some important strategic decisions and allows us to move science along much faster.” 

Bristol-Myers Squibb is also working with payers and other key stakehold- ers to understand how to assess the 

## Maureen O’Grady Finds a New Reason to Hope 

“Before my diagnosis, we were having a great time,” says Maureen O’Grady, of Milford, Connecticut. “Then I got the worst news of my life.” 

Concerned about a cough that wouldn’t go away, in Janu - ary 2009, O’Grady had an x-ray and follow-up tests that confirmed a devastating diagnosis: stage IV lung cancer, including a large mass in her right lung, and cancer lesions on her liver and kidney. Her first oncologist thought she might live another 12-18 months. “I had no hope,” she later said. “I was given an expiration date.” 

Then, a second oncologist, this time at the Smilow Cancer Hospital at yale university in New Haven, gave her a ray of hope. She recalls: “He said, ‘you’re not curable, but you are treatable.’” First came an aggressive chemotherapy regi - men, then a second oral drug and after that, an investiga- tional compound. Her cancer continued to spread. 

In June 2010, O’Grady was offered a new option, to enter a clinical trial for a different type of therapy – an investi- gational immunotherapy called nivolumab (BMS-936558, anti-PD-1), a compound from Bristol-Myers Squibb still in development. “It caught my eye because it was actu - ally going to improve my immune system to recognize the cancer and train my cells to attack it,” she says. Today, her doctors are optimistic: the tumors have all shrunk, and the cancer has stopped spreading. 

“While I’ve been on treatment, I’ve experienced so many milestones – from college graduations and weddings, to the birth of my grandsons, my own 40th high school reunion and my 39th anniversary with my husband,” O’Grady says. “I couldn’t be here today without the outpouring of love and care from my family and friends, my faith and the treatments I have received. I think it’s the trifecta of my success.” 

value of these new medicines. “Tra- ditional standards of median survival do not fully capture the value of the long-term survival benefits being seen in patients,” LaCaze adds. 

r “By focusing so many resources on immuno-oncology, we are going to fundamentally change the way we think about cancer,” he says. “We do not have time to waste. Every day is important for cancer patients.” 

