Kate Cunningham

Writer.
Physician-scientist
in training.

MD-PhD candidate at Columbia University. Writing on cancer, climate, and public health.

MD-PhD Candidate

Narrative Medicine

Science Journalism

Cancer

Recent writing

Selected clips

The Race to Find Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Patients Faster

Between COVID and extreme weather, it's an agonizing time to be in your twenties

New York Daily News

What to do when the air gets smoky: New Yorkers now know what living with big wildfires is like

New York Daily News

Swifties, beware football's risks

↗

Writing

The Race to Find Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Patients Faster

Between COVID and extreme weather, it's an agonizing time to be in your twenties

New York Daily News

What to do when the air gets smoky: New Yorkers now know what living with big wildfires is like

New York Daily News

Swifties, beware football's risks

↗

Mayor Adams, ask NYC to mask up

Research

Google Scholar ↗

Genes & Development · 2026

Mutant p53: evolving perspectives

G Efe*, K Cunningham*, AK Rustgi, C Prives, JJ Manfredi, et al.

* co-first author

Trends in Cancer · 2025

Regulation of metastatic organotropism

KJ Dunbar, G Efe, K Cunningham, E Esquea, R Navaridas, AK Rustgi

Cancer Discovery · 2023

p53 gain-of-function mutation induces metastasis via BRD4-dependent CSF-1 expression

G Efe, KJ Dunbar, K Cunningham, K Sugiura, S Carcamo, S Karaiskos, et al.

Molecular Cancer Research · 2021

Platelet-coated circulating tumor cells are a predictive biomarker in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer

S Chai, N Matsumoto, R Storgard, CC Peng, A Aparicio, B Ormseth, K Cunningham, et al.

About

I'm an MD-PhD student at Columbia University, where I study cancer metastasis. I trained with the Columbia Narrative Medicine Journalism Workshop under Stephen Fried. My writing is focused on climate, cancer, and health.

Contact

I'd love to hear from you!