David S Alberts, MD

Cancer Prevention and Control Program
David S Alberts, MD

Biography

Dr. Alberts received his MD in 1966 from the University of Virginia. He conducted his internship at the University of Wisconsin, before becoming a Clinical Associate in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute’s Baltimore Cancer Research Center. Dr. Alberts conducted his internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota and then served on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, for five years. He joined The University of Arizona College of Medicine in 1975 as an Assistant Professor, where he has served for more than 40 years. He became the UA Cancer Center’s director in 2005 and retired from the position in June 2013.

Cancer Focus

Throughout his career, David Alberts, MD, has focused on translational cancer prevention and treatment research. The emphasis of his laboratory and clinical research has been on the chemoprevention and treatment of cancers of the breast, colon, ovary, and skin. Presently, Dr. Alberts helps to coordinate Phase I and II and pharmacokinetic drug studies at The University of Arizona Cancer Center for molecularly-targeted chemopreventive agents. His laboratory research is concentrated on the evaluation of new surrogate endpoint biomarkers for cancer prevention trials with a special focus on precursor lesions for bladder, breast, colon, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers, using quantitative histopathology (i.e. karyometric) approaches.