Hi everyone. My name is Alicia Zhou. I am the CEO for the Cancer Research Institute. I’m a cancer biologist by training and excited to be leading an organization that is funding some of the most groundbreaking work in the immunotherapy space. I think President Jimmy Carter had such an important impact in the field of immunotherapy, and there are two reasons for this. One is I think that he was a fierce advocate for scientific research and funding for research. And then two, he himself became a cancer patient. And in sharing his cancer journey, I think he actually set a precedent for the field in terms of what it’s like for a public figure to be public about his cancer diagnosis.

And then of course, he was treated with immunotherapy at a time when it was a relatively new category of therapies and really brought awareness to the field. So I think two things are really important here. I think cancer is a disease that affects a lot of individuals in this world, and we know that about one in three individuals in their lifetime will experience cancer at some point. Unfortunately, in some cultures, people feel that it’s kind of taboo to talk about a cancer diagnosis. And as a result, sometimes we end up with delayed treatment or we have patients feeling very alone during their cancer journey. So I think the fact that President Carter was so open to share about his diagnosis and then so fearless about taking on what was a relatively new treatment type was so impactful for us. President Carter was diagnosed with melanoma, which is a rare form of aggressive skin cancer, but by the time that he was diagnosed, he actually already had the tumor metastasize or spread to other parts of his body.

And in fact, it was originally identified as a lesion on his liver, even though it was a skin cancer. And the reality is that at the time, that kind of a diagnosis of late stage melanoma typically would be a pretty bad prognosis for most patients. But it was something that was really astounding was that immunotherapy and specifically a drug called Keytruda was very effective at combating melanoma. And so President Carter was actually one of the first patients really publicly to be treated by Keytruda. And what we found was that he was able to get on this medication, this immunotherapy, and in doing so it was able to eliminate his cancer, both in his liver, but then also in his brain where the melanoma had spread. And that’s a pretty astounding outcome from a patient perspective. But then by sharing his story, he also raised awareness to the world.

We have found so many patients come to CRI and talk how they discovered immunotherapy because of President Carter sharing his story. And I think that’s sort of a real testament to the fact that President Carter was such a selfless individual and a fierce advocate for science. And so I think that’s really the important legacy that President Carter has left. President Carter was actually originally diagnosed and treated back in, I think around 2015. And that’s really around the time the first immunotherapy medications were approved by the FDA. So it’s been about 10, 15 years since the first FDA approvals for immunotherapies today. We’ve come quite a long way, and actually where we are today is that there are about 29 cancers that are treatable with immunotherapy. And 45% of cancer patients today at diagnosis are eligible for immunotherapy. And I think that’s a huge progress in the field.

What’s great about immunotherapy and how it differs from other types of cancer therapy is that the goal with immunotherapy is actually to activate and use the immune system, your own immune system to battle your cancer. In many cases, immunotherapy is used in combination with standard of care, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. But we know is that when immunotherapy works, it can be super effective against cancers that previously had really no clear treatment and that it can be a type of treatment that actually has very few side effects. So that’s really the power of immunotherapy, and it’s pretty amazing to see how far we’ve come in the last 12 to 15 years. I think at the end of the day in the United States, the NIH and the federal government is one of the biggest funders for biomedical research. And I think when you have a point of view from the federal government that biomedical research is important, it really changes the impact that scientists can have.

The reality of the way that therapeutic discovery is made is that it really starts at basic science. It starts the bench. And I think President Carter’s really clear support for bench science was incredibly important. We have to start with all of our discoveries starting in Petri dishes or in experiments that are done by scientists within academic labs. And then there’s a really important step in this in which those academic findings can be translated further to clinical trials. And those clinical trials eventually lead to therapeutic approvals for drugs that can be used in patients. And I think that entire lifeline of development, that pipeline of development for immunotherapy and all of biomedical research is something that President Carter has had a huge impact on, both as a policymaker and a world leader, as well as a patient advocate. I think even today as we look at the current trends, public funding or federal funding, these are the things that I always keep in mind, which is that ultimately the goal is patient outcomes, and the goal is better therapeutic outcomes for cancer patients.

And being able to have that federal support for those types of work is incredibly important. What’s really interesting about the field of cancer therapy today is that the more that we learn about cancers, the more precise our medicines are getting, which is great. It means that we are developing better therapies that have higher efficacy and fewer side effects. It also means that there becomes more and more challenge in terms of finding the right combination of therapies for every patient. It’s not a one size fits all kind of formula. It’s not that every person with a diagnosis should have the exact same regimen of treatment, and actually that’s the definition of precision medicine or individualized medicine. So I think really where the challenge lies next is figuring out what are the right combinations and how do we make sure that these combinations work for all patients?

So it’s really about access and equity for that access. And then the other piece of this is in order to discover those correct combinations for every patient, I do think this takes a data-driven approach. That means we’ve seen the way that data and AI has revolutionized all different parts of life science research. We know that there’s an opportunity for immunotherapy. And so when I think about sort of where the next chapter lies, it’s very much in making sure that we can find the right combinations and using data-driven approaches to do so. I think that it’s really important. When you think about the ecosystem of life sciences development, what is the role of nonprofit organizations? I think that as a private foundation funder for cancer research, we play a really important role of making sure that the right projects get funded, that scientists are invested in.

I think one of the most important programs that we fund are our postdoctoral fellowship programs. These are training grants, grants for biologists that are just finishing their PhDs and entering into the workforce. And this is such an important moment in a scientist’s career, and being able to have that kind of support really can accelerate the discovery. The way that we think about it at CRI is we really invest in people. That’s really an important ingredient. And I think the other piece that comes with that and what I talked about before is about thinking about in this data-driven discovery world, how do we bring the right people together with the right data so we can answer the right biological questions? And that’s ultimately sort of the formula for success. And so when I think about the role of private funding right now, it’s really about ensuring that the most important science continues to, and where we are really looking to is making sure that it’s that marriage of excellent scientific minds with really important new data driven discovery that’s really that intersection that we’re investing in.