Dr. Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., is the world’s foremost expert on head and neck cancers caused by the human papilloma virus. In 2017, she joins the faculty at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center both to expand her research program beyond cancers of the head and neck and to tap into the expertise already in Texas.
“The head and neck cancer research program at MD Anderson is second to none,” says Gillison, a CPRIT Established Investigator, “in terms of the number of patients, the ability to collaborate across disciplines, and the team science culture.”
Read More
Dr. Maura Gillison, M.D., Ph.D., is the world’s foremost expert on head and neck cancers caused by the human papilloma virus. In 2017, she joins the faculty at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center both to expand her research program beyond cancers of the head and neck and to tap into the expertise already in Texas.
“The head and neck cancer research program at MD Anderson is second to none,” says Gillison, a CPRIT Established Investigator, “in terms of the number of patients, the ability to collaborate across disciplines, and the team science culture.”
Gillison’s research encompasses not only the population level incidence and treatment of patients suffering from HPV-caused cancers but also the genetics of how HPV causes human cells to become cancerous.
She was the first to find, in 2000, that the HPV virus is associated with human head and neck cancers. Later, Gillison found that head and neck cancers caused by HPV respond much better to current available treatments than cancers not caused by HPV. In 2009 she recommended that HPV-caused head and neck cancers be treated less intensively, and that cancers not caused by HPV be treated with more intensive or targeted with novel therapies. Her recommendation is now the standard of care worldwide.
While HPV-caused cancers of the head and neck are more easily treated, her research has found that their incidence around the world is increasing exponentially, especially among young white men. Even with vaccination of both boys and girls, rates of these cancers are expected to increase at least until 2060.
Her training in a combination of fields—molecular biology, clinical oncology, and molecular epidemiology—give her a unique perspective on many different aspects of the disease.
At MD Anderson, she’ll tap into a large collection of samples collected from cancer patients who’ve been treated at the center, to better understand the genetics of how HPV turns ordinary cells into malignant ones. She wants to know more about the cascade of events at the genetic level that promote instability in the genome and turn a skin cell into one that not only can’t die but also reproduces uncontrollably.
A better understanding of the genetics of the disease might lead to new therapies—in some cases which could also help patients with head and neck cancers not caused by HPV.
Because MD Anderson is the largest comprehensive cancer research center in the nation, Gillison, who was recruited from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, hopes to expand her research program to include other cancers caused by HPV, like cervical and anal cancers. She also hopes to investigate, at the genetic level, how smoking changes the genetics and physiology of HPV-caused head and neck cancers.
Research isn’t her only focus. “One of my passions is teaching,” she says, “and I look forward to mentoring the superb trainees and junior faculty who are drawn to the clinical and research environment at MD Anderson.”
Gillison is bringing along three members of her team at Ohio State, all experts in genomics, molecular biology, and/or bioinformatics.
Read Less
