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Maura L. Gillison, Who Linked Throat Cancers to HPV, Dies at 61
The New York Times • • health
Key Points:
- Maura Gillison, originally trained in ballet, became a pioneering medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist specializing in head and neck cancers, notably linking HPV to oropharyngeal cancers.
- In the early 2000s, she was the first researcher to definitively prove that human papillomavirus (HPV) causes throat, tonsil, and base of tongue cancers, changing the understanding of these diseases.
- Dr. John V. Heymach praised Gillison as having the greatest impact on head and neck cancer patients among oncologists in the field.
- Dr. Gillison passed away on June 21 at age 61 from a rare small intestine cancer at her childhood home in Ohio.
- Her work challenged longstanding beliefs that throat cancers were mainly caused by smoking and alcohol, highlighting HPV’s significant role in rising tonsil cancer cases since the 1970s.
