Lawrence Fong, MD

Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Fong researches the mechanisms of response and resistance to cancer immunotherapies in both preclinical models and in cancer patients. A physician-scientist, his work helped lead to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of sipuleucel-T, an immunotherapy for prostate cancer. His research investigating novel immunotherapies and combinations, including leading the first trial of adenosine antagonism for cancer immunotherapy, intersects with his role as a genitourinary oncologist treating patients with bladder cancer, kidney cancer and prostate cancer. He has been involved with preclinical and clinical development of multiple immunotherapies, including immune checkpoint inhibitors that are now FDA-approved.

In 2021, Dr. Fong received a National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award. He is on the board of directors for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and has been a senior editor for the Journal of the Immunotherapy of Cancer and Cancer Immunology Research since their inception. Since 2015, Dr. Fong served as the founding director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2024, he moved to Seattle after being named the Bezos Family Distinguished Scholar in Immunotherapy at Fred Hutch, where he is the scientific director of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC).