The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the world and one of the original three NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the country. It is both a degree-granting academic institution and a cancer treatment and research center located within Texas Medical Center (TMC), Houston, the largest medical center and life sciences destination in the world. MD Anderson Cancer Center has consistently ranked #1 among the best hospitals for cancer care and research in the U.S. and worldwide, and it has held the #1 position 20 times in the last 23 years in U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals rankings for cancer care. As of 2023, MD Anderson Cancer Center is home to the highest number of cancer clinical trials in the world and has received more NCI-funded projects than any other U.S. institute. In 2024, Newsweek placed MD Anderson at #1 in their annual list of the World's Best Specialized Hospitals in oncology.
In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam radiotherapy is that the dose of protons is deposited over a narrow range of depth; hence in minimal entry, exit, or scattered radiation dose to healthy nearby tissues.
Stephen Michael Hahn is an American physician who served as the commissioner of food and drugs from 2019 to 2021. Before becoming commissioner, he was an oncologist serving as chief medical executive of the MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2021, he became chief medical officer at Flagship Pioneering, the venture capital firm that launched Moderna.
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), previously known as the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer (iSBTc), is a professional society of scientists, academicians, researchers, clinicians, government representatives, and industry leaders from around the world dedicated to improving outcomes in patients with cancer by advancing the science and application of cancer immunotherapy. Currently, SITC has more than 2,400 members, representing 22 medical specialties from 42 countries around the world, who are engaged in the research and treatment of cancer.
Jonathan W. Simons is an American physician-scientist, medical oncologist, and leader in prostate cancer research. In August 2021, Simons was appointed the medical director and Chief Science Officer of the Marcus Foundation. Prior to joining the Marcus Foundation, he served a 14-year tenure as the President and chief executive officer of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Simons’ laboratories, partly funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation, at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University made original contributions to understanding the molecular biology of prostate cancer metastasis and principles of “broken immune tolerance” via T cell based immunotherapy for prostate cancer. The Simons lab invented GM-CSF genetically engineered vaccines for prostate cancer in rodents and humans for these studies, and subsequently Simons’ clinical team took the biotechnology into the world’s first human gene therapy clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer at Johns Hopkins.
David B. Agus is an American physician, cancer researcher and author who serves as a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and the Founding Director and CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. He is also the cofounder of several personalized medicine companies and a contributor to CBS News on health topics. He is also the author of four books.
James L. Gulley is an American cancer researcher and the Director of the Medical Oncology Service at National Cancer Institute.
The UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, previously the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), is a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located in the Hillman Cancer Center in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, adjacent to UPMC Shadyside. The only NCI-designated cancer center in Western Pennsylvania, Hillman is composed of collaborative academic and research efforts between the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and Carnegie Mellon University. Hillman provides clinical cancer care to some 74,000 patients treated at its facilities at both the Hillman Cancer Center location in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and at UPMC-affiliated sites throughout Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and overseas locations. Founded in 1984, Hillman became the youngest cancer center in history to achieve NCI-designation. As of 2007, Hillman had received nearly $200 million in funding from the National Cancer Institute, which ranks it as one of the top ten cancer research institutes.
Simon J. Hall is an American researcher who is the Associate Professor and Kyung Hyun Kim, M.D. Chair of Urology and Assistant Professor, Department of Gene and Cell Medicine at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as well as the Director of the Barbara and Maurice Deane Prostate Health and Research Center at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, both in New York City.
The University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC) is a comprehensive cancer center in Wisconsin, as designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the lead federal agency for cancer research. It is an integral part of both the University of Wisconsin (UW) and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. It is located in Madison, Wisconsin.
William K. Oh, is an American medical oncologist, academic and industry leader and expert in the management of genitourinary malignancies, including prostate, renal, bladder and testicular cancers.
George Bosl is an American cancer researcher, holder of the Patrick M. Byrne Chair in Clinical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and is a professor of medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College. In 1997, he was appointed chair of the Department of Medicine at Sloan-Kettering, a position which he held until 2015. In 2019, he was named Memorial Sloan Kettering's first ombudsperson.
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is a cancer treatment and research center in Seattle, Washington. Established in 1998, this nonprofit provides clinical oncology care for patients treated at its three partner organizations: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Children's and UW Medicine. Together, these four institutions form the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium.
Walter "Wally" J. Curran, Jr. is an American radiation oncologist specializing in the treatment of malignant brain tumors and locally advanced lung cancer.
Lorenzo Cohen is a professor in the Department of General Oncology and Behavioral Science and the director of the Integrative Medicine Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is also a distinguished clinical professor at the Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center in Shanghai, China. Cohen is a founding member and past president of the Society for Integrative Oncology.
Thomas E. Hutson is an American medical oncologist and cancer researcher based in Dallas, Texas. He is the director of Genitourinary Oncology Program and co-director of the Urologic Cancer Research and Treatment Center at Baylor University Medical Center. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and serves as a chair of Genitourinary Research for US Oncology and McKesson.
Oliver Sartor is an American oncologist and research scientist. He is currently the chair of the genitourinary cancer disease group and director of radiopharmaceutical clinical trials at Mayo Clinic Rochester. He was previously the assistant dean for oncology and the C.E. and Bernadine Laborde Professor of Cancer Research, Medicine and Urology Departments at the Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. His research has mainly focused on translational science and clinical research trials of advanced prostate cancer since 1990 and he is recognized as an expert in that field through his contributions to the practice and the publishing of over 500 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters and reviews. Sartor also serves as the editor-in-chief of the bimonthly journal Clinical Genitourinary Cancer that mainly focuses on research in genitourinary oncology.
Fred Joseph Ansfield, M.D. was an American pioneer of medical oncology. He was a leader in applying 5-FU (5-Fluorouracil) to humans, demonstrating its effectiveness as a chemotherapy drug. Ansfield co-founded the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 1964, along with Harry Bisel, Arnoldus Goudsmit, Herman H. Freckman, Robert W. Talley, William Wilson and Jane Cooke Wright. He served as ASCO's third president (1966–1967).
Robert T. Striker is a microbiologist and infectious diseases physician at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, serving as a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Disease. His work specializes in viral hepatitis and antiviral therapy, aiming to improve therapy for human infectious diseases.
Eric. J. Small is an American medical oncologist specializing in urologic oncology, with a focus on prostate cancer. He currently serves as the co-leader of the UCSF Prostate Cancer Program and the Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Additionally, he is the President-Elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
