Profile

Title

Professor

Full name

Dan Theodorescu

Affiliation

University of Virginia

Keywords

Metastasis, bladder cancer, genetics, biomarkers, therapeutics

Publications

Smalley DM, Sheman NE, Nelson K, Theodorescu D. Isolation and identification of potential urinary microparticle biomarkers of bladder cancer. J Proteome Res 2008;7:2088-96.

Lee JK, Havaleshko DM, Cho H, et al. A strategy for predicting the chemosensitivity of human cancers and its application to drug discovery. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2007;104:13086-91.

Theodorescu D, Wittke S, Ross MM, et al. Discovery and validation of new protein biomarkers for urothelial cancer: a prospective analysis. Lancet Oncol 2006;7:230-40.

Titus B, Frierson HF, Jr., Conaway M, et al. Endothelin axis is a target of the lung metastasis suppressor gene RhoGDI2. Cancer Res 2005;65:7320-7.

Gildea JJ, Seraj MJ, Oxford G, et al. RhoGDI2 is an invasion and metastasis suppressor gene in human cancer. Cancer Res 2002;62:6418-23.

Brief Description

Dan Theodorescu is the Director of the Paul Mellon Urologic Cancer Institute and Paul Mellon Professor of Urologic Oncology and Professor of Molecular Physiology at the University of Virginia. He received his urological training at the University of Toronto where he also obtained a PhD in molecular and cell biology with Robert Kerbel, an internationally known cancer biologist. He then completed a clinical fellowship in urologic oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City prior to his arrival at the University of Virginia in July 1995. Currently, Dr. Theodorescu has a focused clinical practice in urologic oncology with a special interest in bladder and prostate cancer and minimally invasive robotic surgery.

He manages an active translational molecular biology lab focused on identifying the molecular mechanisms leading to bladder and prostate cancer metastasis and their potential applications to patients with these diseases. Theodorescu has three significant accomplishments to date: The first has been the identification of a new metastasis suppressor gene, RhoGDI2, in human cancer. Expression of this gene has also been shown to be an independent prognostic marker for disease specific survival in human bladder cancer. Recent mechanistic studies of this gene have revealed how this gene affects metastatic phenotype and this has resulted in the formulation of a new therapeutic approach to prevent lung metastatic disease. A clinical trial is now in the planning stages for bladder cancer patients at high risk of metastasis development and constitutes a prototypical example of translation of bench to bedside research. The second accomplishment has been the development of COXEN (CO-eXpression ExtrapolatioN) a radical new strategy aimed at 1) personalizing cancer therapy and 2) identifying which new drugs have a high likelihood of being effective in patients based solely on in vitro assays. Proof of principle implementation of these systems has already yielded excellent prediction of patient outcome in several tumor types as well as new candidate compounds for the treatment of human bladder cancer. Third, recent mass spectrometry based proteomics work has resulted in the discovery of novel urinary biomarkers of bladder and prostate cancer which offer the potential for diagnosis and therapy guidance.

Contact Information

Phone

434-924-0042

Fax

434-982-3652

Email

dt9d(at)virginia(dot)edu

History

Member for

2 years 9 weeks