Celestia S. Higano

Celestia S. Higano, MD, FACP is Professor Emerita of Medicine (Oncology) at the University of Washington and Affiliate Professor at the University of British Columbia, having spent the majority of her career at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, where she built and led one of the most productive mCRPC clinical research programs in North America. Dr. Higano is best known internationally as the leading clinical investigator of sipuleucel-T (Provenge), the first FDA-approved therapeutic cancer vaccine. She was a principal investigator and steering committee co-chair of the landmark IMPACT trial (NEJM 2010), a phase III randomized study of 512 asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic mCRPC patients that demonstrated sipuleucel-T improved overall survival by 4.1 months (HR 0.78; p=0.03) versus placebo, leading to FDA approval of sipuleucel-T in April 2010 — the first therapeutic cancer vaccine ever approved. Beyond immunotherapy, Dr. Higano has been a pioneer in characterizing the long-term complications of androgen-deprivation therapy, particularly bone loss and osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction, cardiovascular metabolic syndrome, and cognitive effects, leading clinical guidelines for ADT toxicity monitoring and prevention. She has also conducted seminal research on the management of bone metastases in mCRPC, contributing to the development of zoledronic acid and denosumab as standards for preventing skeletal-related events. Dr. Higano is a past president of ASCO and has served on the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee, influencing regulatory standards for prostate cancer drug approvals.