{"entity":{"id":"maura-gillison","kind":"person","name":"Maura L. Gillison","aka":[],"tldr":"Established that HPV causes a distinct, better-prognosis form of throat cancer and led RTOG 1016 on how to treat it.","summary":"Maura Gillison's work established human papillomavirus as the cause of a rising epidemic of oropharyngeal cancer with a far better prognosis than tobacco-related disease, leading to a separate staging system. She led RTOG 0129 analyses defining HPV as a prognostic factor and RTOG 1016, which showed cetuximab cannot replace cisplatin in HPV-positive disease, a key de-escalation failure. Her work continues on ctDNA and HPV-directed therapy.","asOf":"2026-09-10","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maura_L._Gillison","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gillison%20ML%5BAuthor%5D%20HPV%20oropharyngeal"}],"tags":["head-and-neck","hpv","de-escalation"],"related":[],"cancers":["head-and-neck"],"sections":[],"technologies":["hpv-vaccine","liquid-biopsy"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["md-anderson"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["rtog-0129"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Professor of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center","institutionId":"md-anderson","specialisms":["HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer","Head and neck cancer","Viral oncology","De-escalation trials"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Gillison%20ML%5BAuthor%5D%20HPV%20oropharyngeal"}],"papers":[{"title":"Human papillomavirus and survival of patients with oropharyngeal cancer (RTOG 0129)","journal":"NEJM","year":2010,"doi":"10.1056/NEJMoa0912217"},{"title":"Radiotherapy plus cetuximab or cisplatin in human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal cancer (NRG Oncology RTOG 1016)","journal":"Lancet","year":2019,"doi":"10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32779-X"}]},"route":"/people/maura-gillison/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"head-and-neck","kind":"cancer","name":"Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/head-and-neck/"}],"technology":[{"id":"hpv-vaccine","kind":"technology","name":"HPV & HBV vaccination","route":"/technologies/hpv-vaccine/"},{"id":"liquid-biopsy","kind":"technology","name":"Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)","route":"/technologies/liquid-biopsy/"}],"institution":[{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"}],"trial":[{"id":"rtog-0129","kind":"trial","name":"RTOG 0129 (HPV analysis)","route":"/trials/rtog-0129/"}]}}