Scholars@Duke
Nicholas Christian DeVito

Nicholas Christian DeVito

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Medical Oncology
nicholas.devito@duke.edu
DUMC Box 3052, Durham, NC 27710
308 Research Drive, Levine Science Research, C161, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Tumor NLRP3 Amplification Promotes Immunotherapy Resistance by Suppressing MHC Class I Expression.

Journal Article medRxiv · October 7, 2025 Immunotherapy resistance remains a major challenge in immuno-oncology. We have previously demonstrated that a tumor-intrinsic NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway promotes adaptive immunotherapy resistance by inducing the recruitment of granulocytic myeloi ... Full text Link to item Cite

GLI2 Facilitates Tumor Immune Evasion and Immunotherapeutic Resistance by Coordinating WNT and Prostaglandin Signaling.

Journal Article Cancer Res · May 2, 2025 Therapeutic resistance to immune checkpoint blockade has been commonly linked to the process of mesenchymal transformation (MT) and remains a prevalent obstacle across many cancer types. An improved mechanistic understanding for MT-mediated immune evasion ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract 916: Tumor extracellular vesicles trigger a dendritic cell stress response to promote immune evasion and immunotherapy resistance

Conference Cancer Research · April 21, 2025 AbstractPrevious studies have demonstrated dendritic cell (DC)-mediated T cell activation to be impaired within the tumor microenvironment (TME). This has included studies showing that activation of XBP1 wit ... Full text Cite

Abstract A097: Analyzing immunotherapy resistance in microsatellite instable colorectal FFPE samples using RNA sequencing

Conference Cancer Immunology Research · February 23, 2025 AbstractINTRODUCTION: Immunotherapy outcomes have been underwhelming in most gastrointestinal malignancies. Microsatellite instable (MSI-H) colorectal cancers (CRC) are an exception. Immune checkpoint blocka ... Full text Cite

Abstract C004: A window-of-opportunity trial using neoadjuvant hepatic artery chemotherapy for patients with localized pancreas cancer: Interim analysis of safety and feasibility

Conference Cancer Research · September 15, 2024 AbstractLess than 20% of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will present with localized disease and receive both resection and systemic therapy. Within this group of patients, actual 10-year survival ... Full text Cite

A lactate-SREBP2 signaling axis drives tolerogenic dendritic cell maturation and promotes cancer progression.

Journal Article Sci Immunol · May 10, 2024 Conventional dendritic cells (DCs) are essential mediators of antitumor immunity. As a result, cancers have developed poorly understood mechanisms to render DCs dysfunctional within the tumor microenvironment (TME). After identification of CD63 as a specif ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gli2 Facilitates Tumor Immune Evasion and Immunotherapeutic Resistance by Coordinating Wnt Ligand and Prostaglandin Signaling.

Journal Article bioRxiv · April 1, 2024 UNLABELLED: Therapeutic resistance to immune checkpoint blockade has been commonly linked to the process of mesenchymal transformation (MT) and remains a prevalent obstacle across many cancer types. An improved mechanistic understanding for MT-mediated imm ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract 7521: Tumor NLRP3 inflammasome activity mediates resistance to Anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in advanced gastroesophageal cancer

Conference Cancer Research · March 22, 2024 AbstractThe addition of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy to the therapeutic armamentarium of advanced gastroesophageal (GE) cancer patients has resulted in modest improvements in clinical outcomes for a subset of pat ... Full text Cite

Assessing the utility of molecular diagnostic classification for cancers of unknown primary.

Journal Article Cancer Med · October 2023 BACKGROUND: Roughly 5% of metastatic cancers present with uncertain origin, for which molecular classification could influence subsequent management; however, prior studies of molecular diagnostic classifiers have reported mixed results with regard to clin ... Full text Link to item Cite

Unlocking Drug Resistance in Multiple Myeloma: Adipocytes as Modulators of Treatment Response

Journal Article Cancers · September 1, 2023 Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological malignancy characterized by the clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells. Despite the development of a diverse array of targeted drug therapies over the last decade, patients often relapse and devel ... Full text Cite

Abstract 2892: A SREBF2-dependent genetic program drives a novel immunotolerant dendritic cell population that supports cancer progression

Journal Article Cancer Research · April 4, 2023 AbstractThe development of immune responses to cancers are crucially dependent upon effective antigen cross-presentation by local dendritic cell (DC) populations. Indeed, DC-mediated T cell stimulation is es ... Full text Cite

Tumor-intrinsic NLRP3-HSP70-TLR4 axis drives premetastatic niche development and hyperprogression during anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.

Journal Article Sci Transl Med · November 23, 2022 The tumor-intrinsic NOD-, LRR- and pyrin domain-containing protein-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome-heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) signaling axis is triggered by CD8+ T cell cytotoxicity and contributes to the development of adaptive resistance to anti-programmed cel ... Full text Link to item Cite

513 Overcoming hedgehog mediated anti-PD-1 resistance in melanoma through prostaglandin inhibition

Conference Regular and Young Investigator Award Abstracts · November 2022 Full text Cite

Identification of a Germline Pyrin Variant in a Metastatic Melanoma Patient With Multiple Spontaneous Regressions and Immune-related Adverse Events.

Journal Article J Immunother · July 2022 The mechanisms underlying tumor immunosurveillance and their association with the immune-related adverse events (irAEs) associated with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies remain poorly understood. We describe a metastatic melanoma patient exhibiting mult ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Comprehensive genomic profiling in advanced/metastatic colorectal cancer: number needed to test and budget impact of expanded first line use.

Journal Article J Med Econ · 2022 AIMS: Use of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is limited. We estimated impacts of expanded 1 L CGP, using the Tempus xT test, on detection of actionable alterations and testing budgets in a modeled US health plan ... Full text Link to item Cite

Overcoming Immunotherapy Resistance by Targeting the Tumor-Intrinsic NLRP3-HSP70 Signaling Axis.

Journal Article Cancers (Basel) · September 23, 2021 The tumor-intrinsic NOD-like receptor family, pyrin-domain-containing-3 (NLRP3) inflammasome, plays an important role in regulating immunosuppressive myeloid cell populations in the tumor microenvironment (TME). While prior studies have described the activ ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Genomic evaluation of tumor mutational burden-high (TMB-H) versus TMB-low (TMB-L) metastatic breast cancer to reveal unique mutational features.

Conference Journal of Clinical Oncology · May 20, 2021 1091 Background: Tumor mutational burden (TMB) has emerged as an imperfect biomarker of immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) outcomes in solid tumors. Despite the approval for pembrolizumab in all TMB-high (TMB-H) solid tumors, the ... Full text Cite

Comprehensive genomic profiling in advanced/metastatic colorectal cancer: Number needed to test and budget impact of expanded first-line use.

Conference Journal of Clinical Oncology · May 20, 2021 e18834 Background: A growing number of genomic alterations inform treatment of advanced/metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, use of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) is limited in the first-line (1L) setting. Based o ... Full text Cite

Pharmacological Wnt ligand inhibition overcomes key tumor-mediated resistance pathways to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.

Journal Article Cell Rep · May 4, 2021 While immune checkpoint blockade is associated with prolonged responses in multiple cancers, most patients still do not benefit from this therapeutic strategy. The Wnt-β-catenin pathway is associated with diminished T cell infiltration; however, activating ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

A case report of microsatellite instability (MSI)-high, HER2 amplified pancreatic adenocarcinoma with central nervous system metastasis.

Journal Article AME Case Rep · 2021 Pancreatic adenocarcinoma commonly presents as metastatic disease and harbors a dire prognosis due to its aggressive behavior, propensity for resistance to therapies, and lack of targetable driver mutations. Additionally, despite advances in other cancers, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Role of dendritic cell metabolic reprogramming in tumor immune evasion.

Journal Article Int Immunol · June 26, 2020 The dendritic cell (DC) is recognized as a vital mediator of anti-tumor immunity. More recent studies have also demonstrated the important role of DCs in the generation of effective responses to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. Metabolic programming of ... Full text Link to item Cite

A tumor-intrinsic PD-L1/NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathway drives resistance to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy.

Journal Article J Clin Invest · May 1, 2020 An in-depth understanding of immune escape mechanisms in cancer is likely to lead to innovative advances in immunotherapeutic strategies. However, much remains unknown regarding these mechanisms and how they impact immunotherapy resistance. Using several p ... Full text Link to item Cite

Role of Tumor-Mediated Dendritic Cell Tolerization in Immune Evasion.

Journal Article Front Immunol · 2019 The vast majority of cancer-related deaths are due to metastasis, a process that requires evasion of the host immune system. In addition, a significant percentage of cancer patients do not benefit from our current immunotherapy arsenal due to either primar ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Stromal Fibroblasts Mediate Anti-PD-1 Resistance via MMP-9 and Dictate TGFβ Inhibitor Sequencing in Melanoma.

Journal Article Cancer Immunol Res · December 2018 Although anti-PD-1 therapy has improved clinical outcomes for select patients with advanced cancer, many patients exhibit either primary or adaptive resistance to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. The role of the tumor stroma in the development of these ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Checkpoint inhibitor use in two heart transplant patients with metastatic melanoma and review of high-risk populations.

Journal Article Melanoma Manag · December 2018 Due to the unique side-effect profile of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), groups of patients deemed to be at high risk of complications were excluded from trials that proved the efficacy and safety of these agents in patients with various malignancies. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Paracrine Wnt5a-β-Catenin Signaling Triggers a Metabolic Program that Drives Dendritic Cell Tolerization.

Journal Article Immunity · January 16, 2018 Despite recent advances, many cancers remain refractory to available immunotherapeutic strategies. Emerging evidence indicates that the tolerization of local dendritic cells (DCs) within the tumor microenvironment promotes immune evasion. Here, we have des ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Immune Checkpoint Combinations with Inflammatory Pathway Modulators

Chapter · January 1, 2018 Immune checkpoint inhibition of program death protein-1 (PD-1) and its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 is an established therapeutic modality in melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and other tumor types. Unfortunately, 60 to 80% of all pati ... Full text Cite

Paracrine wnt-β-catenin signaling inhibition as a strategy to enhance the efficacy of anti-PD-1 antibody (Ab) therapy in a transgenic model of melanoma.

Conference Journal of Clinical Oncology · May 20, 2017 3053 Background: Activation of the Wnt-β-catenin signaling pathway is associated with poor T cell infiltration of tumors. We have previously demonstrated that paracrine Wnt5a-β-catenin signaling is a critical trigger of dendritic ... Full text Cite

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes for Solitary Fibrous Tumor (SFT): A Single Center Experience.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2015 Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a mesenchymal neoplasm of fibrous origin. The 2013 WHO classification of soft tissue tumors defines malignant forms as hypercellular, mitotically active (>4 mitosis/10 high-power fields), with cytological atypia, tumor necro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Advances in immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer: 2013.

Journal Article JOP · July 10, 2013 Pancreatic cancer is one of the more difficult malignancies to treat, and there is a great need for less toxic, effective regimens. Immunotherapy has shown potential in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, and at ASCO 2013 there were several progressive adv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Retrospective study of patients with brain metastases from melanoma receiving concurrent whole-brain radiation and temozolomide.

Journal Article Anticancer Res · December 2011 BACKGROUND: Metastatic melanoma is the second most common cancer to metastasize to the brain. It is typically treated using stereotactic radiosurgery with or without whole-brain radiation (WBR) therapy. Recently, the alkylating agent temozolomide, which ha ... Link to item Cite

In vivo expansion, persistence, and function of peptide vaccine-induced CD8 T cells occur independently of CD4 T cells.

Journal Article Cancer Res · December 1, 2008 Significant efforts are being devoted toward the development of effective therapeutic vaccines against cancer. Specifically, well-characterized subunit vaccines, which are designed to generate antitumor cytotoxic CD8 T-cell responses. Because CD4 T cells p ... Full text Link to item Cite