Colorectal Cancer Coalition

From the Desk of Dr. Lenz

• Preventing Colorectal Cancer
• Treating Colorectal Cancer
• Managing Symptoms and Side Effects
• Understanding Genetics
• Living with Colorectal Cancer
• Knowing about Clinical Trials

Click here to read the latest blogs from Dr. Lenz.

Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine in the University of Southern California (USC) Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine, the Scientific Director of the Cancer Genetics Unit, the Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, and the Co-Director of the Colorectal Center at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Lenz earned his M.D. degree at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany. In 1991, he completed his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Eberhardt Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany. He had special fellowship training at Universität Wien (Austria), George Washington University and Harvard Medical School. Also in 1991, he received the prestigious Research Fellowship Award from the “Deutsche Krebshilfe” (Bonn, Germany). He completed his research fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at the USC/Norris Cancer Center before joining the faculty of USC in 1994. He was awarded a Career Development Award from STOP CANCER (1994-1997). Based on his research, in 1994, he also received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In 1995, Dr. Lenz was selected for the prestigious ASCO Career Development Award and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) MidCareer Development Award. Dr. Lenz is also a member of the C3 Medical Review Network.

The NCI-funded laboratory of Dr. Lenz has been interested in the identification and determination of molecular markers in pre-cancerous and cancerous tissues that might predict for cancer risk and clinical outcome in gastrointestinal and breast cancer. Dr. Lenz is also the Institutional Principal Investigator on the UO1/NIH contract (California Cancer Consortium) in collaboration with City of Hope and University of California, Davis which allows him to design innovative clinical trials with novel promising anticancer drugs.

Click here to read previous blogs from Dr. Lenz on the Revolution Health website.

Dr. Lenz’s blog is published for general patient education only. You are welcome to leave comments on his posts, however specific medical advice will not be provided. We urge you to consult directly with your physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions based on your unique medical history.

For private responses to your individual colorectal cancer treatment questions, please call our Answer Line at 1-877-4CRC-111 (1-877-427-2111).

The views and opinions expressed on Dr. Lenz’s blog are his own and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of C3: Colorectal Cancer Coalition.

Disclosure: Dr. Lenz serves as a consultant to Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, ImClone, Merck KG, Novartis, Pfizer, Response Genetics, and sanofi-aventis. He has received honoraria from Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Genentech, ICN, Imclone, Millenium, New Biotics, Novartis Chiron, Pfizer, Roche, sanofi-aventis. His research is funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health.

Last Update: October 20, 2009