Maura L. Gillison

Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD is a world-renowned physician-scientist and the founding architect of the field of HPV-associated head and neck cancer. At MD Anderson Cancer Center she holds an endowed chair and leads translational and clinical research programs that have redefined the epidemiology, biology, and treatment of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). She is best known for her landmark 2000 paper in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute demonstrating that a subset of HNSCC is caused by HPV, establishing HPV-positive OPSCC as a distinct molecular and clinical entity with more favorable prognosis. She subsequently led ECOG-E1308, a pivotal phase II de-escalation trial showing that patients with HPV-positive OPSCC who achieve a complete response to induction chemotherapy can be treated with reduced-dose radiation without compromising survival. Dr. Gillison was also principal investigator on the KEYNOTE-048 trial, the randomized phase III study that established pembrolizumab as first-line standard of care in recurrent/metastatic HNSCC. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications, and her work has fundamentally transformed how head and neck oncologists stratify, counsel, and treat patients.