A urologic medical oncologist and researcher, Robert Dreicer, MD, is passionate about helping patients with cancer achieve the best possible outcomes.
"One of the privileges I have is to take care of patients, but also work with others to develop new and better therapies for patients with difficult diseases," he shares. "One of the great pleasures is to occasionally see those therapies move onto fruition and the patients that I care for benefit from those treatments."
Watch Dreicer talk about his research and read his answers to our questions below.
What are you working on right now?
Our urologic medical oncology faculty have a myriad of ongoing clinical trials looking at novel therapies for patients with bladder, prostate, and kidney cancers.
We also have ongoing and planned studies that are looking to improve the quality of life of our prostate cancer patients who require hormonal therapy as part of their treatment. We're looking at ways to improve physical conditioning and strength as well as better understanding how to measure hot flashes so that good studies of interventions can be performed.
What are the most impactful applications of your work?
As a clinical investigator, the most impactful clinical application of my work is improving patient outcomes.
Over a very long career, I have had the privilege of applying new therapeutic approaches to the care of many of my patients, that I was able to help validate by conducting the clinical trials of these novel therapies and approaches.
There is nothing more gratifying than having a patient do better as a consequence of applying new knowledge to their care.
What recent discoveries have impacted your area of research?
I have been an academic oncologist for a very long time. Unlike in my early years in oncology, where dramatic progression in therapies and patient outcomes was rarely seen, today progress has accelerated in all areas of oncology.
Recent developments in bladder and kidney cancer have transformed how we treat patients, and many have much better outcomes than in the past.
Prostate cancer remains a very challenging disease, but we are beginning to see the potential for some highly impactful outcomes from ongoing clinical trials of novel therapies.
What do you wish more people knew about your area of research?
Oncology clinical research is how we move the needle. The progress made in improving patient outcomes doesn’t happen without clinical research.
It takes a village: patient and family interest and willingness to enter into trials, and the skills and dedication of the research teams to conduct them and interpret the results.
We need ongoing investment in research infrastructure to ensure we can do this well and provide patients of the future with improved outcomes.
What made you choose UVA Health as the place to do your research?
When I was looking for new opportunities a decade ago, the UVA Cancer Center was early in the process of a dramatic transformation under the then newly appointed director, Dr. Tom Loughran. His vision was to transform the UVA Cancer Center into an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, which was achieved in 2022.
The opportunity to help grow the clinical research programs at UVA Cancer Center, in combination with the quality of the people and the strength of the scientific research at UVA Health, was a major attraction for me.
How did you become interested in your area of research?
I was fortunate in being accepted for my oncology fellowship at the Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin, where two internationally renowned urologic oncologists, Dr. Skip Trump, a urologic medical oncologist, and Dr. Edward Messing, a urologic oncologist, provided mentorship and opportunities to develop both clinical and clinical investigative skills in urologic oncology. To these excellent physicians and human beings, I owe a debt of gratitude for helping me along my career path.
