Secretary Kennedy Swears in Dr. Anthony Letai as Director of the National Cancer Institute
Research news: On Sept. 29, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. swore in Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, as Director of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of NIH. Letai previously served as a Harvard Medical School professor and Dana-Farber medical oncologist, with decades of work on cancer cell death, treatment development, and predictive biomarkers. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya cited Letai’s expertise as key to advancing NCI’s mission.
Secretary Kennedy swears in Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, as NCI Director (research news)
On September 29, 2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. swore in Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to an NIH Press Office posting.
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya stated that Letai has been “on the cutting edge of how we think about cancer treatment” and highlighted his leadership attributes for deploying NCI resources. Letai said NCI will focus on identifying “cancer’s root causes, predictive biomarkers, and most effective treatments,” and referenced scientific advances in cell death and replication as central priorities.
Letai previously served as a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The posting notes his research on programmed cell death (apoptosis) and describes his work as central to translating venetoclax (a BCL-2 inhibitor) “from the laboratory to the clinic,” along with contributions spanning liquid and solid tumors and including cellular immunotherapies.
This item reflects an organizational leadership appointment, not a regulatory approval.