Dr. Adam Dicker

Dr. Adam Dicker

My mission is “Empowering patients through translational cancer research as a physician-scientist”.

As Chair & Professor of Radiation Oncology, Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Thomas Jefferson University, I coordinate an interdisciplinary team of oncologists, physicists and scientists focused on multidisciplinary effort to define fundamental mechanisms and targets for combined modality radiation treatment and efficiently translate them to effective innovations in treating cancer patients.

Our group defined for prostate brachytherapy the influence of edema on dosimetric parameters critical for quality metrics, with more recent research correlating radiotherapy protocol deviations and overall survival (JNCI, 2012). The Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System, a patient safety organization (PSO), has been launched and I serve on the PSO and the ASTRO Radiation Oncology Healthcare Advisory Council.

Our work funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation focuses on the “self-seeding” of prostate cells with metastatic properties back to the site of origin, contributing to disease progression. I am the PI of a DoD Prostate Synergy Grant, exploring the use of “smart needles” for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. We have published numerous papers evaluating signal transduction agents with ionizing radiation and published “first in human” developmental therapeutic trials involving novel signal transduction agents and radiation therapy.

I serve as the co-Chair-Translational Science Committee for the NCI cooperative group, NRG Oncology which was recently awarded a U10 for an Integrated Translational Genoproteomics Center at Washington University. I focus on translational research across all solid tumors sites with a particular emphasis on predictive biomarkers, preclinical research, and molecular signatures. Through a team effort, coordinated the creation of a NCI–RTOG Translational Program Strategic Guidelines for the Early-Stage Development of Radiosensitizers (JNCI, 2013). I have served as Chair of the Radiation and Cancer Biology Committee of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, and currently am Chairperson of the Radiation Oncology Section of the Clinical Research Subcommittee of AACR.

I represent the NRG Oncology on the National Cancer Institute’s Investigational Drug Steering Committee of CTEP and am a consultant on Cancer to the European Commission, the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Italian Association of Cancer Research. I was recently appointed as a member of the Integration Panel for the Prostate Cancer Research Program of the DoD.

I have mentored, numerous medical students, residents in radiation oncology, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and international fellows who are early and mid-career clinician researchers and clinician-scientists in academic medicine here and abroad.