Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, and team members (front row, left to right) Weihong Xiao, MD; Tatevik Broutian, MS; Hebin Song, MD, PhD. (back row , left to right) Robert Pickard, MS, MPH, EdM; Mike Koluder, BS; Andrea Inman, BS. Not pictured: Hyun Lee, BS; Bo Jiang, BM; Yingshi Guo, MS, BM; Maria Carnicella, BS; Zhen-yue Tong, MD, PhD; Tracy McHone, BA; Joni Lutman, RN, MSN, CNP; and Paul Kreinbrink.
Professor of Internal Medicine
Professor of Public Health – Epidemiology
Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Cancer
The Jeg Coughlin Chair in Cancer Research
Recent News:
Tumor Virus Is Best Predictor Of Throat Cancer Survival
Ideally, how will your research influence clinical care of head and neck cancer patients?
The overall goal of our research program is to identify factors necessary for cancer development, because these can be effectively targeted for cancer prevention, and also to identify factors that are sufficient for malignant behavior, because these can be targeted for therapy. Whenever we can, we want to prevent the cancers from occurring in the first place. If not, we hope to make cancer therapy more effective by tailoring it to a patient’s specific disease.
Do you see application of your work beyond head and neck cancer? Is it likely to be relevant to human papillomavirus (HPV)-related gynecologic cancer or to promote the use of HPV vaccines?
Although our research has primarily focused on head and neck cancer, we have been involved with completed and ongoing collaborative studies on the role of pRb-inactivating DNA tumor viruses in retinoblastoma, the role of HPV in esophageal cancer in China, and the role of HPV in lung cancer, as well as several projects focused on cervical cancer.
Unfortunately, approximately 20,000 individuals in the United States are diagnosed each year with a cancer caused by HPV. About half of these cancers are non-cervical cancers, and many of these occur in men. Anal cancers, oral cancers and penile cancers in men account for more than half of the non-cervical cancers diagnosed in the United States each year. To have a thorough public discussion of the potential benefits of HPV vaccination on cancer incidence in this country, we need to understand how vaccination might affect all of these cancers over time.
What areas of science collaborate in your work? How important is collaboration to your research?
I am very fortunate to interact with two remarkable communities of science: the HPV scientific community and the head and neck cancer community. I interact daily with a number of physicians and scientists from around the world, and these conversations immeasurably enhance the quality of our science.
You are an epidemiologist and a medical oncologist. How does this diverse training and expertise contribute to your research?
This training is essential to ensure that our science is immediately applicable to human disease. Interacting daily with patients who have the disease that I study provides an opportunity for insights into disease behavior that an epidemiologist could never have. At the same time, the study of epidemiology provides me with the tools I need to measure and communicate these observations to others in a meaningful way.
What is most needed to move the clinical care of head and neck cancer patients to the next level?
We need predictive biomarkers of response to therapy, and novel therapeutic approaches for patients diagnosed with HPV-negative head and neck cancer. Unfortunately, we have not made any progress, in terms of survival, in this patient population.
CV summary
Undergraduate Degree: Duke University
Medical Degree: The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Internship: The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital
Fellowship: The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center
PhD: The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health
National Offices or Board Positions:
• Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, Head and Neck Cancer Committee
• Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, Head and Neck Cancer Committee
• Editorial Boards: Cancer Prevention Research; Journal of Clinical Oncology; Head & Neck Oncology; and Oral Oncology
• International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology Consortium, International Agency for Research on Cancer
• American Association for Cancer Research, Education Committee, Cancer Control and Prevention
• American Association for Cancer Research, Scientific Program Committee
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network Head and Neck Cancers Panel
• Clinical Oncology Cancer Research Study Section, National Cancer Institute
• Oral Cancer Foundation Science Advisory Board
• Tumor Biology and Imaging Task Force, Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee of Clinical Trials Working Group for the National Cancer Institute
Research Interests: Head and neck cancer;
human papillomavirus; infectious-disease tumor associations; investigating the role of human papillomavirus infection in head and neck malignancies, from cohort studies of oral HPV infection to genetic indicators of response to chemoradiotherapy.
