Tobias Janowitz
Associate Professor
Cancer Center Program Co-Leader
M.D., Ph.D., University of Cambridge, UK, 2007
janowitz@cshl.edu | 516-367-8422
Cancer is a systemic disease. Using both laboratory and clinical research, my group investigates the connections between metabolism, endocrinology, and immunology to discover how the body’s response to a tumor can be used to improve treatment for patients with cancer.
How do tumors interact with the biology of the host system? What can we learn from studying the physiology and biochemistry of the host system in the context of cancer? These are principle questions that drive the research in my laboratory. For example, we investigate the convergence of systemic metabolic stress, endocrinology, and suppressed anti-cancer immunity to discover mechanism-based strategies for combination therapy for patients with cancer. We have shown that interleukin-6 induced metabolic stress is sufficient to downregulate hepatic ketogenesis. This causes significant systemic stress during periods of caloric deficiency that are often part of the cancer care pathway. The resulting elevation of glucocorticoids suppresses anti-tumor immunity in model systems of pancreatic cancer. Using clinical samples and data, we have shown correlative findings of weight loss, reduced ketogenesis, and elevated glucocorticoids in patients with pancreatic cancer. Our work, therefore, confirms that cancer cannot be understood and probably not be treated, by investigating tumors in isolation. We use findings like these to develop strategies for interventional studies with the aim to improve outcome for patients with cancer.
Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist Award
Wellcome Trust Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Academic Clinical Lectureship
Boehringer Ingelheim Fond PhD Fellowship
German National Merit Scholarship
President’s essay: The continuous cycle of discovery
May 30, 2024
CSHL President & CEO Bruce Stillman discusses our institution’s societal impacts and global connections as forces for further scientific progress.
Better cancer trials could be around the corner
March 21, 2024
CSHL researchers have developed a new data-driven approach that cancer centers may use to expand patient recruitment efforts.
How diet may impact cancer and possible treatments
February 1, 2024
Researchers at the CSHL Cancer Center study the links between disease and nutrition in hopes of uncovering new treatment and prevention strategies.
Bite into this diet and disease quiz
July 5, 2023
Test your knowledge of how diet and nutrition affect health and disease with this short quiz.
How popular steroids could mess up some cancer treatments
June 23, 2023
Scientists have long wondered how common steroids work and why cancer immunotherapy fails in certain patients. The answers may be one and the same.
The latest weapon against cancer is … a keto diet?
June 12, 2023
CSHL researchers find that pairing keto with a prescription steroid may offer a potential treatment for pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
President’s essay: Bringing bold visions to life
May 26, 2023
CSHL President & CEO Bruce Stillman sees the Laboratory as a global hub for scientific expertise and a powerful launchpad for early-career scientists.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Foundations for the Future
December 15, 2022
CSHL continues to lead in biomedical sciences by fostering a collaborative, innovative, and high-risk, high-reward research community.
Tobias Janowitz leads new, global Cancer Grand Challenges team
June 16, 2022
Janowitz received a $25 million grant to take on cachexia. This debilitating condition is responsible for up to 30% of cancer-related deaths.
Famotidine clinical trial shows COVID-19 symptom reduction
February 10, 2022
An over-the-counter heartburn drug shows promise in reducing several COVID-19 symptoms in a fully-remote outpatient clinical trial.
- Cancer, host metabolism, and immunotherapy
- Tumors reprogram the liver, causing wasting and short-circuiting body’s immune response
- Weight loss condition provides insight into failure of cancer immunotherapies
- From cancer evolution to targeting faulty genetics – our new fellows
- In Accordance With Our Best Estimates
- New Model for Estimating Glomerular Filtration Rate and Accurately Dosing Carboplatin in Cancer Patients
- New way of predicting kidney function could improve chemotherapy dosing for many cancer patients
- You made a difference – December 2012
Selected Publications
Cancer: The Tumor-Driven Disease of the Host
3 Jul 2018 | Cell Metabolism | 28(1):5-6
Janowitz, T
A type III complement factor D deficiency: Structural insights for inhibition of the alternative pathway
Jul 2018 | Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology | 142(1):311-314.e6
Sng, C, O'Byrne, S, Prigozhin, D, Bauer, M, Harvey, J, Ruhle, M, Challis, B, Lear, S, Roberts, L, Workman, S, Janowitz, T, Magiera, L, Doffinger, R, Buckland, M, Jodrell, D, Semple, R, Wilson, T, Modis, Y, Thaventhiran, J
Rapid disease progression in a patient with mismatch repair-deficient and cortisol secreting adrenocortical carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab
21 Jun 2018 | Seminars in Oncology
Casey, R, Giger, O, Seetho, I, Marker, A, Pitfield, D, Boyle, L, Gurnell, M, Shaw, A, Tischowitz, M, Maher, E, Chatterjee, V, Janowitz, T, Mells, G, Corrie, P, Challis, B
A comparative analysis of immune privilege in pregnancy and cancer in the context of checkpoint blockade immunotherapy
26 Mar 2018 | Seminars in Oncology
Flint, T, Jones, J, Ferrer, M, Colucci, F, Janowitz, T
Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Underutilize Immune Response Monitoring
Jan 2018 | Oncologist | 23(1):116-117
Connell, C, Raby, S, Beh, I, Flint, T, Williams, E, Fearon, D, Jodrell, D, Janowitz, T
All Publications
Why do patients with cancer die?
19 Jun 2024 | Nature Reviews Cancer
Boire, Adrienne, Burke, Katy, Cox, Thomas, Guise, Theresa, Jamal-Hanjani, Mariam, Janowitz, Tobias, Kaplan, Rosandra, Lee, Rebecca, Swanton, Charles, Vander Heiden, Matthew, Sahai, Erik
Area postrema neurons mediate interleukin-6 function in cancer cachexia
1 Jun 2024 | Nature Communications | 15(1):4682
Sun, Qingtao, van de Lisdonk, Daniëlle, Ferrer, Miriam, Gegenhuber, Bruno, Wu, Melody, Park, Youngkyu, Tuveson, David, Tollkuhn, Jessica, Janowitz, Tobias, Li, Bo
Restoring adiponectin via rosiglitazone ameliorates tissue wasting in mice with lung cancer
23 May 2024 | Acta Physiologica | :e14167
Langer, Henning, Ramsamooj, Shakti, Dantas, Ezequiel, Murthy, Anirudh, Ahmed, Mujmmail, Ahmed, Tanvir, Hwang, Seo-Kyoung, Grover, Rahul, Pozovskiy, Rita, Liang, Roger, Queiroz, Andre, Brown, Justin, White, Eileen, Janowitz, Tobias, Goncalves, Marcus
Analysis and optimization of equitable US cancer clinical trial center access by travel time
2023 | Journal of Clinical Oncology | 41(16)
Lee, Hassal, Bates, Alexander, Marshall, Andrea, Callier, Shawneequa, Chambwe, Nyasha, Janowitz, Tobias
A guideline on the molecular ecosystem regulating ferroptosis
29 Feb 2024 | Nature Cell Biology
Dai, Enyong, Chen, Xin, Linkermann, Andreas, Jiang, Xuejun, Kang, Rui, Kagan, Valerian, Bayir, Hülya, Yang, Wan, Garcia-Saez, Ana, Ioannou, Maria, Janowitz, Tobias, Ran, Qitao, Gu, Wei, Gan, Boyi, Krysko, Dmitri, Zhu, Xiaofeng, Wang, Jiayi, Krautwald, Stefan, Toyokuni, Shinya, Xie, Yangchun, Greten, Florian, Yi, Qing, Schick, Joel, Liu, Jiao, Gabrilovich, Dmitry, Liu, Jinbao, Zeh, Herbert, Zhang, Donna, Yang, Minghua, Iovanna, Juan, Kopf, Manfred, Adolph, Timon, Chi, Jen-Tsan, Li, Changfeng, Ichijo, Hidenori, Karin, Michael, Sankaran, Vijay, Zou, Weiping, Galluzzi, Lorenzo, Bush, Ashley, Li, Binghui, Melino, Gerry, Baehrecke, Eric, Lotze, Michael, Klionsky, Daniel, Stockwell, Brent, Kroemer, Guido, Tang, Daolin