What If…Vaccines Could End Cancer?
Part of the Future of Aging: Medical Moonshots series
The UW’s Cancer Vaccine Institute is embarking on a cancer vaccine moonshot to bring vaccines to the clinic for six cancers that make up more than half of the new diagnoses and deaths from cancer in the United States. Dr. Nora Disis will discuss using the immune system to destroy cancer, and how vaccines can effectively kill it.
Dr. Disis will discuss
- Using the immune system to destroy cancer
- How vaccines can effectively kill cancer
- Why we’re at a tipping point for cancer vaccines and in fact embarking on a cancer vaccine moonshot to bring vaccines to the clinic for six solid cancers that make up more than half of the new diagnoses and deaths from cancer in the United States (breast, ovarian, lung, bladder, prostate, and colon cancers)
- Examples of vaccines that are in development for prevention, interception, and treatment of cancer at the UW’s Cancer Vaccine Institute
Speakers
Mary (Nora) Disis, MD
Professor, Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Pathology and Obstetrics and Gynecology
Member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Associate Dean, Translational Science, UW School of Medicine
Dr. Disis received her M.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical School and completed a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her fellowship in oncology was completed at UW/FHCRC. Dr. Disis is an expert in breast and ovarian cancer immunology and translational research. She is one of the pioneering investigators who discovered that HER-2/neu is a tumor antigen. Her work has led to several clinical trials which evaluate boosting immunity to HER-2/neu with cancer vaccines. Dr. Disis is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. She is the Editor in Chief for JAMA Oncology, and is a member of several committees and task forces for both the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). She is also the Director of the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and the Director for the Cancer Vaccine Institute at the UW. Her multifaceted research program within the Cancer Vaccine Institute includes the discovery of new antigens for common solid tumors, the development of vaccine and cellular therapy targeting specific antigens, and immunodiagnostics.