Nise Yamaguchi

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Nise Hitomi Yamaguchi is a Brazilian doctor and immunologist. She was born on May 6, 1959, in Maringá, Brazil. She works in cancer care and the immune system and speaks internationally about health.

She has a medical degree from the University of São Paulo, a Master’s in Immunology, and a PhD in Clinical Medicine with Molecular Biology done with the MD Anderson Cancer Center labs. Her research areas include personalized medicine, cancer research, and immunology. She uses genetics and other science tools to understand and treat diseases.

As of April 2022, she was not affiliated with any political party. Yamaguchi has trained and worked in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. She studied tumor immunology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and defended her master’s thesis in immunology in 1993. Her doctoral work was done with translational labs at MD Anderson in Houston.

She is board-certified in clinical oncology and immunology by the Brazilian Medical Association and in oncology by the European Society of Medical Oncology. She helped promote the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which contributed to tobacco-free indoor spaces in Brazil and other anti-cancer efforts. She has spoken at international forums on tobacco cessation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she spoke about diagnosis, early treatments, and vaccines. Some of her views on early treatments, including hydroxychloroquine, were controversial. There was talk about her becoming Brazil’s Health Minister, but she denied this.

Yamaguchi has worked with governments of different political backgrounds and focuses on making health care fair and accessible, especially for cancer patients and people in lower-income countries. She has served as an immunologist and adviser during AIDS and H1N1 outbreaks and volunteers to improve health governance.

In 2020, she was suspended by a hospital after making remarks about the Holocaust on a TV show. She apologized, saying her comments were not meant to be anti-Semitic.

Today she continues to work as a clinician and the director of the Institute of Advances in Medicine in Brazil. She treats patients at several hospitals, including Hospital Albert Einstein. She has written books, including The Human Being Facing Cancer and the Will to Cure, which was nominated for a Jabuti Prize.