Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Seattle, Washington
Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Professor Professor, Department of Medicine Raisbeck Endowed Chair for Collaborative Cancer Research University of Washington
Improving immunotherapies for breast cancer.
The success of immunotherapy to treat breast cancer has been hampered by the ability of tumor cells to adapt and evade a person’s immune system. Researchers including Dr. Nancy Davidson are seeking ways to improve its use in breast cancer by specifically targeting a process used by tumors to help them survive an immune response. It has been shown that the protein nuclear factor erythroid-related factor 2 (NRF2) can help protect normal cells from damage. However, NRF2 can also protect cancer cells, allowing them to hide from the immune system and making immunotherapy less effective. In fact, Dr. Davidson and her colleagues have found that NRF2 is more active in breast cancer cells and is linked to worse outcomes for patients. Her team will explore ways to target NRF2 and make breast cancers more visible and vulnerable to the immune system. Dr. Davidson’s findings could lead to more effective treatments for patients with breast cancer, especially those who do not currently respond well to traditional therapies. She not only strives to advance therapeutic options for breast cancer but also aims to uncover fundamental insights into the complex interplay between cancer biology and immune responses.
Dr. Davidson’s team has devised a groundbreaking strategy to block NRF2 in laboratory models of breast cancer and evaluate its impact, particularly in combination with immune therapies. They will investigate how inhibiting NRF2 affects cancer cells directly and how it alters immune cells within the tumor microenvironment.
Dr. Davidson is a world-renowned breast cancer researcher who serves as Senior Vice President and Director of the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, President and Executive Director of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and Head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington.
Dr. Davidson has published key findings on the role of hormones, particularly estrogen, on gene expression and cell growth in breast cancer. She has guided several important national clinical trials of new therapies for breast cancer, including chemo-endocrine therapy for premenopausal breast cancer. Her research has been supported by a portfolio of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She has authored over 350 articles in the top journals of her field.
An elected member of the Association of American Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Davidson is an active member of the scientific advisory boards as well as external advisory boards of many foundations and cancer centers. She has also served as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) – the two largest organizations for cancer researchers and oncology professionals in the world. She was President of ASCO from 2007 to 2008 and President of AACR from 2016 to 2017.
Dr. Davidson earned her MD degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her internal medicine internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Subsequently, Dr. Davidson completed a medical oncology fellowship at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute. She was a faculty member in the Department of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1986 to 2009, serving as Director of the Breast Cancer Program from 1994 to 2009 and as the Breast Cancer Research Chair of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine from 1995 – 2009. From 2009-2016 she served as Hillman Professor of Medicine and Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
1998
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