Eleven individuals who have made significant contributions to cancer research, innovation and clinical care were included in Time’s third annual Time100 Health list.
The list was published Feb. 11 and highlighted the 100 most influential individuals in health, including leaders of federal agencies, pharmaceutical CEOs, public health advocates and philanthropists.
Here are the 11 individuals who were recognized:
- Priti Bandi, PhD, scientific director of cancer risk factors and screening surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, whose research focuses on identifying barriers to cancer screening.
- Victor Bultó, president of Novartis U.S., which has developed radioligand therapies that bind radioactive materials to tumor cells.
- Robert Davis, CEO of Merck, which manufactures and distributes the immunotherapy drug Keytruda.
- Laura Esserman, MD, director of the Breast Cancer Center at University of California San Francisco and co-leader of the Breast Oncology Program at UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, who launched the WISDOM study in 2016. The study produced evidence that standard breast cancer screening guidelines could be leading to an overdiagnosis among low risk women and missed cancers in high-risk women.
- Darrell Irvine, co-founder of Elicio Therapeutics, which has developed vaccines for pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
- Ian Kunkler, MD, professor of clinical oncology at University of Edinburgh in Scotland, whose research found that women with early-stage breast cancer had similar survival outcomes regardless of whether they received radiation after mastectomy.
- Constance Lehman, MD, PhD, co-director of the Breast Imaging Research Center at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital, whose company, Clairity, developed an AI-based platform to predict breast cancer risk.
- Emil Lou, MD, PhD, professor in the division of hematology, oncology and transplantation at Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota, who eliminated a patient’s cancer through a single infusion of gene-edited immune cells from the patient’s own tumor.
- Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, associate professor of medicine at New York City-based Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, who updated his Pulitzer-winning book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” in 2025. Dr. Mukherjee co-founded Manas AI to aid cancer drug discovery.
- Waseem Qasim, PhD, professor of cell and gene therapy at University College London, who led a clinical blood cancer trial using base-edited cell therapy. All 11 trial participants experienced disease reduction and nine had enough reduction in disease to pursue bone marrow transplant.
- Catherine Wu, MD, division chief of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies at Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who is leading research to develop personalized cancer vaccines.
Read Time’s full list here.
At the Becker's Perioperative Summit, taking place September 14–15 in Chicago, perioperative leaders and healthcare executives will focus on improving operating room efficiency, enhancing patient safety, optimizing staffing and driving innovation across surgical services. Apply for complimentary registration now.
