2006 Gala
Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Recipient of the 2006 Humanitarian Award
Steven A. Rosenberg received his B.A. in 1961 and M.D. in 1964 from The Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in Biophysics at Harvard University. After completing his residency training in surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Dr. Rosenberg became the Chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute in 1974.
A trailblazer in the development of immunology resulting in the first effective immunotherapies for selected patients with melanoma and advanced cancer. He has pioneered the development of gene therapy, being the first to insert foreign genes into humans and to conduct clinical studies of the gene therapy of cancer. Recently he and his group have cloned the genes encoding cancer regression antigens, using these to develop cancer vaccines for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma.
The author of eight books and over 820 articles on various aspects of cancer research, Dr. Rosenberg is also one of the world's most frequently cited clinicians in oncology. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and served on its Board of Directors, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the Society of University Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Association of Immunologists.
Dr. Rosenberg has received numerous awards, including the Armand Hammer Cancer Prize "for pioneering work in cancer research" in 1985 and 1988, and the Karnofsky Prize in 1991, the highest honor given by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. In 2002 he was awarded the Flance-Karl Award, the highest honor of the American Surgical Association for "innumerable contributions to the service of clinical surgery." In 2005 he received the Richard V. Smalley, MD, Memorial Award, the highest honor given by the International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer.