Biography

Bruce E. Johnson, MD, is director of the Carole M. and Philip L. Lowe Thoracic Oncology Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), director of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Womens Thoracic Oncology Program, and leader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Lung Cancer Program that includes the 7 Harvard Medical School;affiliated institutions. Dr Johnson is the principal investigator of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Lung Cancer, and holds the position of professor of medicine at the Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr Johnson earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard College and received his MD from the University of Minnesota in 1979. He completed his postgraduate training at the University of Chicago and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). After serving at NCI, where he was head of the Lung Cancer Biology Section, he joined The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 1999.His laboratory-based research is devoted to testing novel therapeutic agents for their efficacy against lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. His group was among those that discovered that patients with partial and complete responses to the epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors gefitinib and erlotinib have mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor. These discoveries have been licensed to Genzyme who provides testing to identify patients with lung cancers to help select the initial treatment for patients with advanced disease. Dr Johnson leads a research team that is applying these findings to the clinical treatment of patients with lung cancer. Dr Johnson is active at the national and international level. He is currently chair of the biology subcommittee to the External Scientific Committee for the National Cancer Institute, National Human Genome Research Institute Pilot Project Characterizing Cancer Genomes. Dr Johnson was the chair for the Review Committee on Early Detection Research Network: Biomarkers Development Laboratory, National Cancer Institute. He served as chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Communications Committee in 2005 and became chair of the Education Committee in July 2007. He recently was elected to serve as a member of the ASCO Board of Directors. He serves as senior editor for Clinical Cancer Research and is on the editorial board for International Journal of Oncology and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He recently received the ASCO Cancer Foundations Translational Research Professorship. He was awarded the Tisch Family Outstanding Achievement Award in Translational and Clinical Research in Solid Tumors from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr Johnson is a recognized expert in lung cancer, particularly small cell lung cancer. He was the chair of the committee that drafted the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines on the treatment of small cell lung cancer. He is currently one of four project leaders of the World Health Organizations Pathology Panel, who are redefining adenocarcinoma of the lung by integrating the different genetic markers into the different types of lung cancer, including bronchioloalveolar adenocarcinoma. Dr Johnson has authored over 145 original reports in peer-reviewed journals and more than 95 reviews, chapters and editorials.