Physician Investigator (Cl) Cancer Center, Mass General Research Institute

Associate Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Associate Physician Medicine-Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital

MDPhD Jacobi Medical Center 1997

angiogenesis; antineoplastic combined chemotherapy protocols; bone density conservation agents; bone neoplasms; cancer; carcinoma renal cell; diphosphonates; imidazoles; indoles; kidney cancer; kidney neoplasms; prostatic neoplasms; pyrroles; renal cell carcinoma; sunitinib

At Mass General, we have participated in a number of crucial clinical trials that have shifted treatment in kidney cancer to targeted therapy with inhibition of angiogenesis.

These trials have broadly impacted treatment of this disease and resulted in regulatory approval of new drugs including sunitinib.

Dr. Michaelson has served on scientific advisory boards for a number of companies with an interest in developing targeted therapy for RCC, is a member of the NCCN Renal/Testicular Cancer Guidelines Panel, and also serves on the NCI RCC Task Force that is responsible for evaluating and modifying new clinical trial concepts.

He currently leads and participates in phase 1 and phase 2 studies in RCC that hope to define tailored therapy for particular patient subpopulations in the move toward individualized cancer treatment.

Regarding prostate cancer research, Dr. Michaelson has led an effort at Mass General and DFCI to characterize the activity of targeted therapy with sunitinib in men with advanced prostate cancer, and serves as the study chair for an international phase 3 trial in this patient population.

Additionally, he has designed a phase 3 National Cancer Institute trial concept with a promising, novel hormonal agent in early high-risk prostate cancer. He also designed and leads a phase 1/2 NCI-sponsored cooperative group trial looking at combination of chemotherapy and targeted treatment together with radiation therapy in invasive bladder transitional cell carcinoma.

Many of the efforts described above have been supported by peer-reviewed grants from the National Cancer Institute and Department of Defense, in addition to institutional sources.