三亿体育官网 immunotherapy pioneer Steven Rosenberg awarded nation鈥檚 highest honor for technology and innovation
Media Advisory Tuesday, October 24, 2023
三亿体育官网 immunotherapy pioneer Steven Rosenberg awarded nation鈥檚 highest honor for technology and innovation

What
Immunotherapy pioneer has been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Biden. It is the nation's highest honor for technological achievement. Dr. Rosenberg is chief of the Surgery Branch at the at the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Awarded by the President of the United States, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation recognizes outstanding contributions to America鈥檚 economic, environmental, and social well-being. Dr. Rosenberg will receive his medal from President Biden at a White House ceremony on October 24, 2023. The distinguished oncologist is among nine individuals and a team of three receiving the award this year.
Dr. Rosenberg helped pioneer the development of immunotherapy, a form of treatment that helps a person鈥檚 own immune system fight cancer. He identified the anti-cancer properties of a hormone, interleukin-2, that became the first cancer immunotherapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
He was the first to identify immune cells with cancer-fighting properties, called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs. He developed a form of treatment known as adoptive cell transfer (ACT) immunotherapy, in which TILs are extracted from a tumor, grown to large numbers in the lab, and then administered back to a patient as a 鈥渓iving drug鈥 to shrink their tumors. ACT is now being developed by hundreds of academic and industrial centers to treat people with cancer.
Dr. Rosenberg was the first to introduce foreign genes into patients, a development that opened the field of human gene therapy, now being widely studied for many diseases. He was the first to use genetically engineered immune cells, known as CAR T cells, to treat patients with aggressive lymphomas.
In recent work, a clinical trial that Dr. Rosenberg is leading on the use of TILs to selectively target cancer cells in women with metastatic breast cancer. He is also for patients whose cancers do not respond to standard treatments.
Who
Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute
Where
Email ncipressofficers@nih.gov to schedule an interview with Dr. Rosenberg.
About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and 三亿体育官网鈥檚 efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of people with cancer. NCI supports a wide range of cancer research and training extramurally through grants and contracts. NCI鈥檚 intramural research program conducts innovative, transdisciplinary basic, translational, clinical, and epidemiological research on the causes of cancer, avenues for prevention, risk prediction, early detection, and treatment, including research at the 三亿体育官网 Clinical Center鈥攖he world鈥檚 largest research hospital. Learn more about the intramural research done in NCI鈥檚 . For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at or call NCI鈥檚 contact center at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
About the National Institutes of Health (三亿体育官网): 三亿体育官网, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 三亿体育官网 is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about 三亿体育官网 and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
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