Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD

Dr. Theodorescu is internationally known for his work on the molecular mechanisms driving bladder cancer and tools that determine drug response as well as discovery of new drugs for bladder and other cancer types. Examples include the discovery of genes that regulate tumor growth and metastasis and novel biomarkers and concepts for precision therapeutic approaches such as the COXEN principle tested in a national (SWOG 1314) clinical trial. He also conceptualized the approach and then led the discovery and development of a “first in class” RalGTPase inhibitor as a new therapeutic in cancer. This drug was awarded a U.S. patent and is in commercial development. He has also identified approaches that define effective combination immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors and a new bladder cancer subtype, “C3,” whose presence in tumors predicts immunotherapy response. His most significant discovery is demonstrating that loss of the Y chromosome in cancer makes tumors more aggressive by allowing them to evade the immune system.

Dr. Theodorescu is a founding co-editor in chief of Bladder Cancer, the first journal focused on this disease and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), Association of American Physicians (AAP), the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons (AAGUS), the American Surgical Association (ASA) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

From 2018 until 2025 he was the director of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and overall leader of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer enterprise in California. Prior to that, from 2010 until 2018, he was director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and a distinguished university professor.