Five Dana-Farber Cancer Institute faculty members are inductees of the 2021 Giants of Cancer Care® program. Toni Choueiri, MD, Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD, Matthew Meyerson, MD, PhD, Paul Richardson, MD, and Richard Stone, MD, are among the 14 inductees selected to join the prestigious 2021 class.
Dr. Choueiri is the Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center and the Co-Leader of the Kidney Cancer Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. He has led multiple high-impact clinical trials that have evolved the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and led to new therapies, changing the standard of care. Dr. Choueiri’s research also focuses on the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment outcomes of genitourinary cancers, especially through having co-established the International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium criteria for RCC risk stratification.
Dr. Jänne is the Director of Dana-Farber’s Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science, and Chen-Huang Center for EGFR Mutant Lung Cancers. His main research interests include studying the therapeutic relevance of oncogenic alterations in lung cancer. Dr. Jänne was also one of the co-discoverers of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and has led the development of therapeutic strategies for patients with EGFR mutant lung cancer.
Dr. Meyerson is the Director of the Center for Cancer Genomics at Dana-Farber. His research focuses on using genomic approaches to understand the biology and genetics of human lung carcinomas. More broadly, Dr. Meyerson’s laboratory is focused on cancer genome discovery and pathogen discovery in human disease.
Dr. Richardson is the Clinical Program Leader and Director of Clinical Research of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber and serves as the RJ Corman Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His primary research interest is in novel therapies for the treatment of multiple myeloma, and he has been a leader in the clinical development and approval of numerous agents, including bortezomib, lenalidomide, pomalidomide, ixazomib, panobinostat, daratumumab, and elotuzumab, as well as combination therapies for relapsed and refractory myeloma and in newly diagnosed patients, where he has led the development of lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (so-called RVD). His other major contribution has been in the development of defibrotide and its approval for the treatment of severe hepatic veno-occlusive disease as a potentially life-threatening complication of stem cell transplantation in children and adults.
Dr. Stone is Dana-Farber’s Chief of Staff and the Director of Translational Research of the Adult Leukemia Program. His research focuses on developmental therapeutics for patients with bone marrow stem cell disorders including the acute leukemias, myelodysplasia, and the myeloproliferative disorders.
Giants of Cancer Care® celebrates the achievements of leading researchers and educators whose discoveries have helped propel the field of oncology and established the building blocks for future advances. Every year, a selection committee of more than 120 eminent oncologists, researchers and clinicians chooses honorees from several types of tumor and specialty categories.