Avrum Spira

Avrum Spira is an innovative clinician-scientist who developed the concept of genomic field cancerization in the airway, demonstrating that bronchial epithelial gene expression profiles could predict lung cancer risk and detect early cancer. His bronchial genomics classifier enabled non-invasive cancer detection from brushings obtained during standard bronchoscopy. His work bridges molecular biology of carcinogenesis with practical early detection tools. He has contributed to lung cancer chemoprevention trials and now leads J&J's oncology innovation program.