Get to know the chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee – NCI

In 1971, Richard Nixon, the President of USA, signed the National Cancer Act, which established the President’s Cancer Panel.

The Panel was created under The National Cancer Act of 1971 (P.L. 92-218), which bolstered the national fight against cancer and was signed into law by President Nixon on December 23, 1971. It functions as a Federal Advisory Committee regulated by the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 (P.L. 92-463) and is supported by the National Cancer Institute.

The President’s Cancer Panel monitors the activities of the National Cancer Program and reports to the President of the United States on barriers to progress in reducing the burden of cancer.

The Panel fulfills its mission by pinpointing high-priority topics suitable for actionable recommendations, holding meetings with key experts and stakeholders to grasp the problems, challenges, opportunities, and potential solutions, and then formulating possible recommendations, including actions for relevant organizations. After extensive input, the Panel submits a report to the President of the United States.

The Panel communicates its findings using a variety of tools – including print and web-based reports, social media, and presentations to a range of organizations. While reports are to the President, they are also for the larger group of stakeholders, public and private, that form the National Cancer Program as well as other partner organizations. Together, these organizations and others can make a positive difference in accelerating progress against cancer.

Panel members are distinguished members of the scientific, research, and public communities appointed by the President of the United States to serve three-year terms.

National Cancer Institute’s LinkedIn page posted about the chair of the President’s Panel, Elizabeth Jaffee, saying:

”Get to know the chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology and pancreatic cancer treatment and research.”

Dr. Elizabeth M. Jaffee is an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology and pancreatic cancer. She is deputy director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, codirector of the Skip Viragh Pancreatic Cancer Center, and associate director of the Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Jaffee is a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research. She has served on a number of committees at the National Cancer Institute, including as cochair of the Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel and as past chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board.

Her research is focused on understanding the inflammatory responses that are associated with cancer development and progression in preclinical and clinical models, and development of immunotherapies to treat specific inflammatory signals. She is the inaugural director of the new Convergence Institute at Johns Hopkins and was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Jaffee is a fellow of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Cancer Research, and the American College of Physicians. She received her undergraduate degree from Brandeis University and her medical degree from New York Medical College and completed her residency at Presbyterian-University Hospital.