Warren T. Phipps, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutch
Deputy Director
Global Oncology Program, Fred Hutch
Medical Director, UCI-Fred Hutch Collaboration
UCI/Hutchinson Center Cancer Alliance
Attending Physician, Infectious Disease Consulting Service
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutch
Dr. Warren Phipps is an expert in cancers associated with HIV. He conducts research in Seattle but spends most of his time in Kampala, Uganda, where he treats patients and works with local doctors at the UCI-Fred Hutch Cancer Centre. He specializes in Kaposi sarcoma, or KS, a disfiguring cancer caused by a virus called HHV-8. People whose immune systems are compromised by HIV are particularly vulnerable to KS, which often involves the skin, lymph nodes and other organs. In Uganda KS is a leading cause of cancer death. Dr. Phipps has established one of the largest cohorts of KS patients in the world, and he and his Kampala team have built a collection of biopsies from more than 1,000 tumors for study. Information and samples from that cohort drive his research, which explores how immune cells respond to KS in persons with and without HIV and how genetic mutations affect therapies and survival. He co-chairs the COVID-19 Task Force at the Uganda Cancer Institute to help guide its response to the pandemic and is working with Uganda’s Ministry of Health to establish COVID-19 testing at UCI-Fred Hutch labs.
Other Appointments & Affiliations
Associate Professor, Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, University of Washington School of MedicineAssociate Professor, Division of Allergy & Infectious Diseases
University of Washington School of Medicine
Education
MPH, University of Washington, School of Public Health, 2009
MD, Harvard Medical School, 2002
BA, Yale University, 1993
Research Interests
Dr. Phipps' research focuses on HIV-associated malignancies, with a particular emphasis on human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) virology and the pathogenesis of Kaposi sarcoma (KS). He is also interested in infections in the immunocompromised host.
Specific areas of investigation include defining the characteristics of effective T-cell responses to KS in persons with and without HIV infection; analyzing cellular mutations in KS and evaluating the relationship of mutational burden, specific gene mutations and clonality with KS clinical presentation, response to therapy, and survival.
Other research interests include characterizing the HHV-8 transcriptome in KS tumors and determining the association between viral gene expression and KS clinical presentation and outcomes; and identifying causes of neutropenic fever among cancer patients in Uganda.