Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center

Mapped the Fanconi anaemia/BRCA DNA repair pathway and how tumours become resistant to PARP inhibitors.

Boston sarcoma doctor who first showed that mTOR inhibitors shrink perivascular epithelioid cell tumours and then led AMPECT, the trial that made nab-sirolimus the first approved treatment for these rare cancers.

Ann Partridge led the POSITIVE trial showing women can safely pause hormone therapy to have a baby.

Created the low, intermediate and high-risk classification that every prostate cancer decision starts from.

Discovered how lenalidomide works, launching the field of molecular-glue degraders, and defined clonal haematopoiesis before leading Dana-Farber.

After his mother died of melanoma he organised a bike ride across Massachusetts in 1980 with 36 riders; the Pan-Mass Challenge has since raised $1.125 billion for Dana-Farber and passes on every rider-raised dollar.

Boston lymphoma doctor who led ZUMA-5, the trial that brought the CAR-T therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel to relapsed follicular lymphoma.

Led the first personalised neoantigen peptide vaccine trial in melanoma and mapped how CLL evolves under treatment.

A 12-year-old lymphoma patient of Sidney Farber whose 1948 radio broadcast launched the Jimmy Fund, which has funded Dana-Farber for more than 75 years.

Computational oncologist who built open tools for interpreting tumour genomes and predicting response.

Surgeon-scientist who led IMpassion031 and studies of surgery de-escalation after neoadjuvant immunotherapy.

Emil "Tom" Frei III

Pioneer of combination chemotherapy; long-time physician-in-chief of Dana-Farber

With Emil Freireich he showed that combinations of drugs could cure childhood leukaemia, then extended the idea to Hodgkin lymphoma and to adjuvant treatment after surgery.

Breast cancer specialist who leads Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, and who previously ran breast oncology at Dana-Farber for more than two decades.

First author of the 2010 ipilimumab trial that proved immunotherapy could extend survival in melanoma.

Led the imatinib trial in GIST that proved a targeted drug could melt away a solid tumour, and every GIST kinase inhibitor since.

Showed that PD-L1 is the ligand for PD-1 and that the pair switches T cells off, the foundation of checkpoint immunotherapy.

Boston oncologist who led CABINET, the trial that showed cabozantinib delays progression of advanced neuroendocrine tumours after other treatments have failed.

Led ALPINE, the first head-to-head trial in which a next-generation BTK inhibitor (zanubrutinib) beat ibrutinib.

Led KEYNOTE-045, the first trial to show immunotherapy beats chemotherapy in advanced bladder cancer.

A leading authority on inherited cancer risk and how BRCA carriers should be treated and screened.

Translated bortezomib and lenalidomide from bench to bedside, helping turn myeloma from a two-year to a decade-plus disease.

Nancy Lin is the leading authority on brain metastases from breast cancer, including the HER2CLIMB tucatinib data in patients with active brain disease.

Led KarMMa, which brought idecabtagene vicleucel, the first CAR-T for myeloma, to approval.

Co-discovered EGFR mutations in lung cancer and has led the drug development that followed, from osimertinib to KRAS G12C inhibitors.

Neuro-oncologist who created the RANO response criteria used in every brain tumour trial and leads glioblastoma drug development.

Led the DETERMINATION trial and many of the myeloma drug approvals of the past two decades.

Boston lymphoma doctor who led KEYNOTE-170, the trial that showed pembrolizumab can control relapsed primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, and who helped bring PD-1 blockade to Hodgkin lymphoma.

Surgeon-scientist who led the first neoadjuvant pembrolizumab trial in head and neck cancer and the KEYNOTE-689 study that made it standard.

Richard M. Stone

Chief of Staff and Director of Translational Research, Adult Leukemia Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Led RATIFY, the trial that made midostaurin the first targeted therapy added to induction chemotherapy for AML.

A two-year-old with acute leukaemia treated by Sidney Farber with the folate antagonist aminopterin from December 1947. His temporary remission, reported in 1948, was the first evidence that a drug could turn back leukaemia.

Leads Dana-Farber's breast oncology division and many of the trials that moved ADCs and de-escalated therapy into breast cancer care.

Sean Parker

Founder of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

In 2016 he founded and funded an institute that runs cancer immunotherapy research as one network across a dozen leading cancer centres, sharing data, samples and patents rather than competing for them.

Sidney Farber

Pathologist who produced the first chemotherapy remissions in childhood leukaemia; father of modern chemotherapy

In 1947-48 he showed that the folate antagonist aminopterin could send childhood leukaemia into remission, the first drug ever to do so. He then built Dana-Farber and, with Mary Lasker, won the 1971 National Cancer Act.

Discovered the MYD88 mutation that defines Waldenström macroglobulinaemia and led the trial that made ibrutinib its first approved drug.

Ted Williams

Boston Red Sox star who was the Jimmy Fund's public champion for half a century

From the 1940s until his last clinic visit in 1999 the greatest hitter in baseball raised money for Dana-Farber's Jimmy Fund and visited children on the wards on condition that no one wrote about it.

Toni K. Choueiri

Director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology

Leads kidney cancer research worldwide, including the adjuvant pembrolizumab and belzutifan trials.

Ursula Matulonis led the MIRASOL trial that gave ovarian cancer its first ADC with a survival benefit.

William G. Kaelin Jr.

Sidney Farber Professor of Medicine; HHMI Investigator

William Kaelin is the Nobel laureate whose work on VHL and HIF-2α led directly to belzutifan.