Joe Leonelli’s Melanoma Journey

“Joseph Michal Leonelli grew up in the California Bay Area and Central Ohio, spending summers with extended family in Rhode Island and Indiana. His melanoma journey began 25 years ago, when, as a high school senior, a doctor identified a small but unusual mole that was confirmed as melanoma. After a successful wide excision with clear margins, Joe moved forward with life. He attended Carnegie Mellon University, was commissioned in the United States Navy, qualified as a nuclear submarine officer, and met the love of his life, Andree.

In 2014, while stationed at the Pentagon, Joe learned his battle with melanoma had returned. Four days after his wedding, doctors at Walter Reed removed his gallbladder and more than 70 diseased lymph nodes. He began treatment with ipilimumab, but the melanoma later spread to his right femur. In 2015, he underwent radiation therapy and started nivolumab, which controlled the disease for over a year.

In 2017, the melanoma spread to his small intestine. Joe enrolled in a TIL therapy clinical trial at the National Institutes of Health, successfully eliminating three tumors. In 2018, he underwent surgery to remove the remaining tumor. In 2019, after concerning scan results, he began combination therapy with trametinib and dabrafenib. After nearly seven years on this regimen, he has no evidence of disease.

Joe, Andree, and their two children are active in supporting melanoma research through the Melanoma Research Foundation, raising more than $50,000 over the past 11 years. Joe has also advocated with his father on Capitol Hill to ensure federal funding for melanoma research and served as a patient reviewer for research grants funded by the Congressional Directed Medical Research Program.

He believes cancer is a marathon, not a sprint—and that continued research will make melanoma a chronic, and ultimately preventable, disease.”