Distinguished Professor of Medicine,
Associate Director, Clinical Science,
Director, Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy,
Leader, Experimental Therapeutics,
Director, Rare Tumor Clinic, University of California, San Diego, Moores Cancer Center
Dr. Razelle Kurzrock is known for founding and building the largest Phase 1 clinical trials department in the nation/world while at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. A central theme of that program was the precision medicine strategy, embodied in a protocol called PREDICT for Profile-related Evidence Determining Individualized Cancer Therapy.
At University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, Dr. Kurzrock’s charge is heading its newly established Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy. This center focuses on genomically-driven therapy as well as precision immunotherapy, especially in rare cancers. Dr. Kurzrock is a global leader in personalized medicine, bringing the first transcriptomic study to the clinic in an international setting spanning five countries (WINTHER), as well as the first study of individually customized combination therapy (IPREDICT) (both Nature Medicine, April 2019).
Dr. Kurzrock received her MD degree from the University of Toronto, Canada. She has >800 PubMed publications, an H-index of 117, has been named to the list of most highly cited scientists in the world and the 25 world leaders in precision medicine, and she has a uniquely strong record of competitive funding with more than 100 million dollars in lifetime funding.
Importantly, Dr Kurzrock has a special interest in Rare Cancers, a large unmet need. Dr. Kurzrock founded a Rare Tumor Clinic at UCSD and heads the Rare Cancers and Early Therapeutics Committee for the NCI cooperative group SWOG. The effort that Dr. Kurzrock is most passionate about is changing the course of disease for patients with cancer. Patients are at the heart of her work.
Dr. Kurzrock has four children and three dogs and lives with her husband, Dr. Philip Cohen, a dermatologist, in San Diego, CA.
