David S. Alberts, MD
Director
Arizona Cancer Center
University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
As Dave Alberts noted in his talk after receiving the third annual AACR-Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research last year, "Not all roads lead to Tucson," where he currently is Director of the Arizona Cancer Center. But it is there, at the University of Arizona, where he has made the most impact in the field of cancer prevention. And the roads that took him there amount to, as he puts it, "cruising down the chemoprevention superhighway with my awesome research colleagues."
The road trip began almost 40 years ago when Dave received his MD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1966. He conducted his internship at the University of Wisconsin and then joined the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Baltimore Cancer Research Center as a clinical associate in medical oncology. He completed his residency at the University of Minnesota and then joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, for five years.
Dave first came to the University of Arizona 30 years ago when he joined he College of Medicine as an assistant professor. Twenty-nine years later, he was appointed Regents Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, Nutritional Science, and Public Health. Most recently, he was named Director of the Arizona Cancer Center.
"Dave Alberts is a world-renowned scientist with the premier program in cancer prevention," said Keith Joiner, MD, MPH, dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. "He is also a national and international leader in therapeutic trials for ovarian cancers. By any criteria, he is a national and international leader, widely recognized as the best in his field. This is a time of great promise for the Arizona Cancer Center because the horizon is so enormous. Dave Alberts has the vision and perspective to see far out over that horizon and make the right decisions for the Arizona Cancer Center now and for the future."
Dave became director of the Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) Program in 1989. The CPC Program is the largest program at the Arizona Cancer Center, with some 60 faculty members who represent six colleges and 23 academic departments at the University of Arizona. Since its inception, the program has grown rapidly through supporting faculty research interests in cancer prevention and control and successfully obtaining funding for research projects that encompass multiple disciplines.
Between 1988 and 1996, Dave served as deputy director for the Arizona Cancer Center, and between 1996 and 2002, was associate dean for research in the College of Medicine. He has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) yearly since 1971 for laboratory and clinical research related to the clinical pharmacology of cancer chemotherapy and chemopreventive agents, as well as the development of research strategies for the prevention of breast, cervix, colon, prostate and skin cancers. Since 1987, Dave has been the principal investigator for two NCI- funded cancer prevention program project grants: the Colon Cancer Prevention Program Project and the Chemoprevention of Skin Cancer Program Project. These two NCI grants have served as the intellectual glue for the Arizona Cancer Center's CPC Research Program in the area of translational cancer prevention research and have led to hundreds of important laboratory and clinically based peer-reviewed publications. From this strong foundation, many other research projects and contracts have been developed and funded over the years.
The emphasis of Dave’s laboratory-based and clinical research has been the preclinical screening and phase I-III clinical trials of promising chemical and biological agents for the chemoprevention of a wide variety of intraepithelial neoplasias (IENs), or precancerous lesions. He has led a broad national effort to emphasize that there should be a continuum of treatment for all phases of the carcinogenesis pathway, from the first initiated cell through mild, moderate and severe dysplasia, to carcinoma in situ and invasive cancer. This unifying view of cancer prevention and treatment could catalyze efforts by surgical, radiation, and medical oncologists to focus on "therapeutic" interventions for patients with a wide variety of IENs.
Dave has made numerous contributions beyond his own research to advancing the cause of cancer prevention. Not only has he served as the chair of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee, he is currently a member of the NCI's Board of Scientific Advisors, is co-editor-in-chief of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, and chairs the Cancer Prevention and Control Committee in the Gynecologic Oncology Group. He received the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Prevention Award in 1999, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Joseph Burchenal Eighth Annual Award for Excellence in Clinical Research in 2003, as well as the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) Distinguished Career Award in 2003.
The most recent recognition of Dave’s contributions to the field of cancer prevention came last year when he received the third annual AACR-Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research. This award is given annually to a scientist residing in any country in the world for his or her seminal contributions to the field of cancer prevention. Research must have had not only a major impact on the field, but must also have stimulated new directions in this important area. In announcing the award, Dr. Margaret Foti, chief executive officer of the AACR noted, "Dr. Alberts is a true pioneer in translational cancer prevention research. His many contributions to the field have advanced cancer prevention from its earliest preclinical and clinical stages of drug development to definitive, randomized controlled trials. His laboratory and clinical research has emphasized the chemoprevention and treatment of such pervasive and potentially deadly diseases as breast, colon, ovarian, and skin cancer."
Summarizing his recent work, Dave notes, "We are just beginning mechanistic studies of novel agents which hit and disable specific molecular targets in the skin, thus reversing severe sun damage, and we have initiated diagnostic studies of early precancerous lesions in the breast, using novel nipple lavage capabilities. Our cancer chemoprevention research laboratories are focused on research to uncover biochemical and molecular-based intervention strategies to halt and/or reverse the human carcinogenesis process."
"With the increasing focus on IEN for both screening/detection and treatment, the field of cancer prevention research is moving into the mainstream of clinical oncology. In fact, as shown in Figure I, there are innumerable opportunities to intervene therapeutically along the entire carcinogenesis pathway. Cytostatic agents such as tamoxifen and celecoxib will be employed by clinical oncologists to treat IENs as well as to treat early and late stage invasive cancers. It is time to activate a new vocabulary that more clearly describes our efforts to "treat" all aspects of carcinogenesis."
