Q&As

Lisa M. Coussens is Professor and Chair of the Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology department, and Deputy Director of Basic and Translational Research in the Knight Cancer Institute, at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland Oregon, USA. She is also President of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for 2022–2023. Nature Cancer caught up with her to hear her thoughts on the past year and what’s in store for 2023.

Elisabete Weiderpass is an expert in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention. She has been the Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization, since January 2019. She spoke with Nature Cancer about 2021 and the years ahead.

50 years after the National Cancer Act was signed into law, Nature Cancer spoke with the National Cancer Institute Director Dr Ned Sharpless about the progress in cancer research and care, the complications of the pandemic and what to expect in the future.

Zena Werb is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Anatomy at the University of California at San Francisco and Associate Director for Basic Science of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Nature Cancer caught up with her at the 6th International Conference on Tumor Microenvironment and Cellular Stress organized by Aegean Conferences and held in Greece in the fall of 2019, to talk about her career and work in the tumor microenvironment field.

Norman E. ‘Ned’ Sharpless became director of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) in 2017. From April 2019, he served as acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and he returned to the NCI in November. Douglas R. Lowy has been the principal deputy director of the NCI since 2010, having also served as acting director twice, most recently in 2019. Nature Cancer spoke with both last fall to learn more about what makes NCI and its leadership tick.