Steve Rosenberg is the Chief of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute, a position he has held continuously for the past 47 years. Steve is a pioneer in the field of immunotherapies for cancer and a recipient of nearly every major award in science. In this episode, Steve discusses his inspiration for devoting his career to cancer research and describes his keen observation of two cases of spontaneous cancer remission, driving him to learn how to harness the immune system to treat cancer. Steve’s personal story essentially serves as a roadmap for the field of immunotherapy, from the very nonspecific therapies such as interleukin2, the discovery of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes, checkpoint inhibitors, CAR Tcells, and adoptive cell therapy. Perhaps most importantly, Steve expresses his optimism for what lies ahead, especially in the face of some of the more recent discoveries with respect to tumor antigenicity. Finally, Steve discusses the human side of cancer which helps him to never lose sight of why he chose to become a physician.

We discuss:
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:10 Steve’s childhood and inspiration to become a physician and medical researcher
00:11:05 Patients that influenced Steve’s thinking about cancer and altered the course of his career
00:17:42 The discovery of antigen presentation, Steve’s first job, and why he knew he wanted to study cancer
00:25:42 Cancer treatment in the early 1970’s and Steve’s intuition to utilize lymphocytes
00:30:56 Cancer cells vs. noncancer cells, and why metastatic cancer is so deadly
00:37:50 The problem with chemotherapy and promise of immunotherapy
00:43:00 How the immune system works and why it seems to allow cancer to proliferate
00:52:00 Steve discovers how to use interleukin2 to mediate cancer regression
01:04:56 The immunogenic nature of certain cancers and the role of mutations in cancer
01:18:09 The improbable story of how CAR T cell therapy was developed
01:30:07 The discovery of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and engineering of T cells to recognize specific antigens
01:38:40 Steve’s experience treating President Ronald Reagan’s colon cancer
01:44:05 Why Steve has turned down many tempting job offers to focus on his research at the National Cancer Institute
01:46:24 The role of checkpoint inhibitors in cancer therapy and the promise of adoptive cell therapy
01:50:07 Optimism for using immunotherapy to cure all cancers
01:56:18 The human side of cancer and the important lessons Peter learned from working with Steve

Show notes page: https://peterattiamd.com/stevenrosenb...


About:

The Peter Attia Drive is a weekly, ultradeepdive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking…and a few other things. With over 30 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including fasting, ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more.

Peter is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. His practice deals extensively with nutritional interventions, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, emotional and mental health, and pharmacology to increase lifespan (delay the onset of chronic disease), while simultaneously improving healthspan (quality of life).

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