Duke Cancer Institute

Duke has held NCI comprehensive designation since 1973. The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, built by Darell Bigner, developed the recombinant polio-rhinovirus PVSRIPO oncolytic immunotherapy for recurrent glioblastoma and, with Hai Yan, helped define IDH mutations in glioma. Duke investigators helped lead pivotal HER2 breast cancer trials including EMILIA (trastuzumab emtansine), and its prostate programme (Andrew Armstrong, Daniel George) is a fixture of Alliance and NCI trials. The Duke Clinical Research Institute is the largest academic clinical research organisation in the world and runs many oncology trials. Michael Kastan's DNA-damage biology and dendritic cell vaccine work under Smita Nair anchor the basic and immunology programmes.