The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) has named Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, the recipient of its 2025 Young Investigator Award. Through this honor, the group recognizes him for a distinguished record of innovative research, outstanding clinical practice, and unwavering dedication to advancing the field of genitourinary oncology.

Dr. Grivas is a professor of medicine in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch Cancer Center and at the Division of Hematology Oncology, Department of Medicine at University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine in Seattle. He is a medical oncologist and the clinical director of the Genitourinary Cancers Program at UW and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.

Group Co-Chairs Peter J. O'Dwyer, MD, and Mitchell D. Schnall, MD, PhD, announced the Young Investigator Award recipient on May 14 at the Spring  2025 Group Meeting. This award recognizes extraordinary scientific achievements and research leadership contributions made by investigators during the early years of their careers. A committee composed of previous recipients and ECOG-ACRIN scientific leaders selects one awardee annually. The award was established in 1992 and is funded by the ECOG Research and Education Foundation.

As part of the honor, Dr. Grivas will present his research at the Fall 2025 Group Meeting (October 22-24 in Philadelphia).

Dr. Grivas earned both his MD and PhD in oncology from the University of Patras, Greece, where he also completed post-graduate training in molecular biology, biostatistics, research methodology, and bioinformatics. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Drexel University and Hahnemann University Hospital in 2010.

From 2011 to 2014, he was a hematology-oncology fellow and then junior faculty at the University of Michigan, during which time he was a member of the SWOG Cancer Research Network’s Genitourinary Committee. He joined the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute in July 2014 and the UW and Fred Hutch Cancer Center in January 2018. He rapidly rose to the rank of professor within nine years of completing his fellowship with stellar and comprehensive scholar productivity.

He joined ECOG-ACRIN in 2014 at a crucial time for the organization, which was spearheading the national precision oncology movement. Dr. Grivas became part of NCI-MATCH, the largest, first-of-its-kind precision oncology clinical trial, which ECOG-ACRIN and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) started in 2015. He was the Cleveland Clinic's principal investigator (PI) for that important trial and also served as the translational co-chair for Arm J. This arm evaluated trastuzumab and pertuzumab in HER2-amplified tumors, and Dr. Grivas is a co-author on the results manuscript.

Subsequently, he participated in the strategic planning for ComboMATCH—the successor precision oncology initiative to NCI-MATCH. He co-authored a ComboMATCH perspective paper and continues to serve on the ComboMATCH Agents and Genes Working Group. This group evaluates concepts submitted by investigators across the cooperative research groups for potential new drug combinations to add to the trial.

Dr. Grivas has led numerous innovative trials on novel therapeutic agents and biomarkers that have expanded the understanding of urothelial carcinoma, paving the way for more effective and personalized treatments. Urothelial carcinoma is the most common form of bladder cancer, with about 84,870 new cases diagnosed annually in the United States.

Recently, his phase 1b trial PrE0807 through PrECOG showed that neoadjuvant nivolumab-based immunotherapy is safe, feasible, and well tolerated in cisplatin-ineligible patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (Grivas P. Eur Urol Oncol. August 2024).

Dr. Grivas helped co-lead the practice-changing JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial, which demonstrated the role of avelumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, as switch maintenance after chemotherapy for patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma. He is the senior author on the results manuscript.

He also played a major role in the FDA accelerated approval of sacituzumab govitecan (an antibody drug conjugate) in advanced urothelial carcinoma in 2021 and he was the senior author in the TROPiCS04 phase 3 trial that informed clinical practice regarding that agent. Additionally, he co-led a phase 2 trial (Grivas P. J Clin Oncol, January 2024) that forms the basis for the upcoming phase 3 trial, EA8231 (in development). This trial will target anti-PD-(L)1-resistant advanced urothelial carcinoma, evaluating a novel combination. He has enthusiastically collaborated with the SWOG Cancer Research Network and Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, two other NCTN groups, on their bladder cancer studies.

Currently, he is co-chairing the ongoing phase 3 trial EA8192, which is exploring durvalumab and chemotherapy before radical surgery for patients with aggressive high-grade upper tract urothelial cancer. He is one of the top-ranking physicians nationally for patient enrollment in this trial and significantly contributed to its design and launch.

Along with clinical trial leadership, Dr. Grivas is a highly valuable contributor to ECOG-ACRIN's mission in many other areas. He has been a member of the Executive Review Committee for over a decade. He provides valuable insights to this committee, which meets monthly to review study concepts submitted by investigators across ECOG-ACRIN's multiple scientific committees.

He was recently appointed as the co-chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Genitourinary Cancer Committee and is also active on numerous committees across ECOG-ACRIN’s Biomarker Sciences program. He has joined high-level ECOG-ACRIN meetings related to strategy, big data, and other relevant initiatives. He supports the ECOG-ACRIN Health Equity Committee in building inclusive and equitable healthcare delivery efforts. He co-chaired the 2017 ECOG-ACRIN Scientific Planning Committee symposium, Entering the Era of Liquid Biopsies.

Nationally, he has participated in multiple NCI and Food and Drug Administration think tanks on a wide range of topics, such as defining trial endpoints, harmonizing clinical trials in genitourinary cancers, and cancer prevention using cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). He was a voting member of the NCTN Core Correlative Sciences Committee, representing ECOG-ACRIN, for several years.

Dr. Grivas embodies the qualities and achievements the Young Investigator Award seeks to recognize. His outstanding contributions to cancer research, clinical practice, leadership, and teaching and mentorship make him an exemplary recipient of this prestigious honor.

In accepting the award, Dr. Grivas said, "My goal is to translate scientific discoveries into treatments that make a real difference for patients, extending their life and improving their quality of life. I am honored and humbled to receive this very prestigious award and remain committed to our mission to eliminate cancer as we know it globally. ECOG-ACRIN has been a phenomenal group supporting young investigators across their career journey."

Naomi B. Haas, MD, Evan Y. Yu, MD, and Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, contributed to this story.