Karen E. Knudsen

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Karen E. Knudsen is Chief Executive Officer of American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She is the first woman to hold that position in either organization. [1]

Contents

Prior to joining ACS, Dr. Knudsen served as Executive Vice President of Oncology Services, Jefferson Health and Enterprise Director of its Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of 71 NCI-designated cancer centers in the United States. Previously she was the Hilary Koprowski Endowed Professor of Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She also held secondary appointments in the Departments of Urology, Medical Oncology, and Radiation Oncology.

Education and career

Knudsen received her bachelor’s degree in biology from the George Washington University, her PhD in molecular biology from the University of California at San Diego in 1996, and her MBA with honors from the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship training at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, San Diego under the mentorship of Dr. Webster K. Cavenee. She joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in 2000, wherein she became a tenured Associate Professor.

In 2007 she joined the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health, and founded the cancer center’s prostate cancer program. After serving as the Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center and the Vice Provost of Thomas Jefferson University, Knudsen accepted the offer to serve as the Enterprise Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in 2015, leading the cancer care and cancer discovery mission for Jefferson Health. She is also editor-in-chief, Molecular Cancer Research [2]

Dr. Knudsen currently holds leadership roles with some of the most important cancer entities in the nation. She serves on the board of advisors for the National Cancer Institute and on 12 external advisory boards for NCI-designated cancer centers. She is an active member of several committees with the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in addition to serving on other academic and for-profit advisory boards. She previously served as president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), representing the 102 leading cancer centers in North America, and on the board of directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Knudsen was also recognized as one of the 100 Influential Women in Oncology by OncoDaily. [3]

Research

Knudsen is an oncology researcher whose studies are focused on precision medicine in advanced prostate cancer, with an emphasis on understanding therapeutic relapse and designing new means of clinical intervention. Her translational studies have resulted in new clinical trials targeting DNA repair, cell cycle, and hormonal regulation pathways in patients with advanced disease. Knudsen and her colleagues discovered the mechanisms by which androgen signaling impacts cancer cell proliferation and DNA repair processes, and identified novel strategies for therapeutic intervention. Notable discoveries include identification of RB tumor suppressor loss as a major mechanism of therapeutic bypass, [4] [5] [6] discovery of the androgen-DNA repair axis, [7] [8] [9] and elucidation of androgen receptor function in the mitotic cell cycle. [10] [11] [12] Her discoveries were amongst the first to propose utilization of PARP 1/2 inhibitors for advanced disease, [13] [14] [15] now an FDA-approved agent for selected prostate cancers. [16]

Service

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References

  1. ↑ "American Cancer Society Names Dr. Karen Knudsen as its Next CEO". cancer.org. American Cancer Society. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  2. ↑ "Editorial Board | Molecular Cancer Research". mcr.aacrjournals.org. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  3. ↑ "100 Influential Women in Oncology: Key Opinion Leaders to follow on Social Media in 2023". OncoDaily.
  4. ↑ Sharma, Ankur; Comstock, Clay E. S.; Knudsen, Erik S.; Cao, Khanh H.; Hess-Wilson, Janet K.; Morey, Lisa M.; Barrera, Jason; Knudsen, Karen E. (2007-07-01). "Retinoblastoma Tumor Suppressor Status Is a Critical Determinant of Therapeutic Response in Prostate Cancer Cells". Cancer Research. 67 (13): 6192–6203. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-4424. ISSN   0008-5472. PMC   4133940 . PMID   17616676.
  5. ↑ Sharma, Ankur; Yeow, Wen-Shuz; Ertel, Adam; Coleman, Ilsa; Clegg, Nigel; Thangavel, Chellappagounder; Morrissey, Colm; Zhang, Xiaotun; Comstock, Clay E. S.; Witkiewicz, Agnieszka K.; Gomella, Leonard (December 2010). "The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor controls androgen signaling and human prostate cancer progression". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 120 (12): 4478–4492. doi:10.1172/JCI44239. ISSN   1558-8238. PMC   2993601 . PMID   21099110.
  6. ↑ McNair, Christopher; Xu, Kexin; Mandigo, Amy C.; Benelli, Matteo; Leiby, Benjamin; Rodrigues, Daniel; Lindberg, Johan; Gronberg, Henrik; Crespo, Mateus; De Laere, Bram; Dirix, Luc (January 2018). "Differential impact of RB status on E2F1 reprogramming in human cancer". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 128 (1): 341–358. doi:10.1172/JCI93566. ISSN   1558-8238. PMC   5749518 . PMID   29202480.
  7. ↑ Goodwin, Jonathan F.; Schiewer, Matthew J.; Dean, Jeffry L.; Schrecengost, Randy S.; de Leeuw, Renée; Han, Sumin; Ma, Teng; Den, Robert B.; Dicker, Adam P.; Feng, Felix Y.; Knudsen, Karen E. (November 2013). "A hormone-DNA repair circuit governs the response to genotoxic insult". Cancer Discovery. 3 (11): 1254–1271. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-13-0108. ISSN   2159-8290. PMC   3823813 . PMID   24027197.
  8. ↑ Goodwin, Jonathan F.; Kothari, Vishal; Drake, Justin M.; Zhao, Shuang; Dylgjeri, Emanuela; Dean, Jeffry L.; Schiewer, Matthew J.; McNair, Christopher; Jones, Jennifer K.; Aytes, Alvaro; Magee, Michael S. (2015-07-13). "DNA-PKcs-Mediated Transcriptional Regulation Drives Prostate Cancer Progression and Metastasis". Cancer Cell. 28 (1): 97–113. doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2015.06.004. ISSN   1878-3686. PMC   4531387 . PMID   26175416.
  9. ↑ Dylgjeri, Emanuela; McNair, Christopher; Goodwin, Jonathan F.; Raymon, Heather K.; McCue, Peter A.; Shafi, Ayesha A.; Leiby, Benjamin E.; Leeuw, Renée de; Kothari, Vishal; McCann, Jennifer J.; Mandigo, Amy C. (2019-09-15). "Pleiotropic Impact of DNA-PK in Cancer and Implications for Therapeutic Strategies". Clinical Cancer Research. 25 (18): 5623–5637. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-2207. ISSN   1078-0432. PMC   6744985 . PMID   31266833.
  10. ↑ Burd, Craig J.; Petre, Christin E.; Morey, Lisa M.; Wang, Ying; Revelo, Monica P.; Haiman, Christopher A.; Lu, Shan; Fenoglio-Preiser, Cecilia M.; Li, Jiwen; Knudsen, Erik S.; Wong, Jiemin (2006-02-14). "Cyclin D1b variant influences prostate cancer growth through aberrant androgen receptor regulation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (7): 2190–2195. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103.2190B. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0506281103 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   1413684 . PMID   16461912.
  11. ↑ Augello, Michael A.; Burd, Craig J.; Birbe, Ruth; McNair, Christopher; Ertel, Adam; Magee, Michael S.; Frigo, Daniel E.; Wilder-Romans, Kari; Shilkrut, Mark; Han, Sumin; Jernigan, Danielle L. (2013-01-02). "Convergence of oncogenic and hormone receptor pathways promotes metastatic phenotypes". The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 123 (1): 493–508. doi:10.1172/JCI64750. ISSN   0021-9738. PMC   3533295 . PMID   23257359.
  12. ↑ de Leeuw, Renée; McNair, Christopher; Schiewer, Matthew J.; Neupane, Neermala Poudel; Brand, Lucas J.; Augello, Michael A.; Li, Zhen; Cheng, Larry C.; Yoshida, Akihiro; Courtney, Sean M.; Hazard, E. Starr (September 2018). "MAPK Reliance via Acquired CDK4/6 Inhibitor Resistance in Cancer". Clinical Cancer Research. 24 (17): 4201–4214. doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-0410. ISSN   1078-0432. PMC   6125187 . PMID   29739788.
  13. ↑ Schiewer, Matthew J.; Goodwin, Jonathan F.; Han, Sumin; Brenner, J. Chad; Augello, Michael A.; Dean, Jeffry L.; Liu, Fengzhi; Planck, Jamie L.; Ravindranathan, Preethi; Chinnaiyan, Arul M.; McCue, Peter (December 2012). "Dual roles of PARP-1 promote cancer growth and progression". Cancer Discovery. 2 (12): 1134–1149. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-12-0120. ISSN   2159-8290. PMC   3519969 . PMID   22993403.
  14. ↑ Feng, Felix Y.; de Bono, Johann S.; Rubin, Mark A.; Knudsen, Karen E. (2015-06-18). "Chromatin to Clinic: The Molecular Rationale for PARP1 Inhibitor Function". Molecular Cell. 58 (6): 925–934. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2015.04.016. ISSN   1097-4164. PMC   4487541 . PMID   26091341.
  15. ↑ Schiewer, Matthew J.; Mandigo, Amy C.; Gordon, Nicolas; Huang, Fangjin; Gaur, Sanchaika; de Leeuw, Renée; Zhao, Shuang G.; Evans, Joseph; Han, Sumin; Parsons, Theodore; Birbe, Ruth (1 December 2018). "PARP-1 regulates DNA repair factor availability". EMBO Molecular Medicine. 10 (12). doi:10.15252/emmm.201708816. ISSN   1757-4684. PMC   6284389 . PMID   30467127.
  16. ↑ Research, Center for Drug Evaluation and (2020-05-20). "FDA approves olaparib for HRR gene-mutated metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer". FDA.
  17. ↑ "AACI President Knudsen to Focus Two-Year Term on Mitigating Health Disparities". www.newswise.com. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  18. ↑ "Board of Directors | AACR About Us". American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  19. ↑ "NCI Board of Scientific Advisors". deainfo.nci.nih.gov. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  20. ↑ "Genentech: Scientific Research Board". www.gene.com. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  21. ↑ "Editorial Board | Molecular Cancer Research". mcr.aacrjournals.org. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
  22. ↑ "About the Editors | Oncogene". www.nature.com. Retrieved 2020-11-27.
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