Razelle Kurzrock, MD is Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, Director of the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy and Rare Tumor Clinic, Associate Director of Clinical Science, and Leader of Experimental Therapeutics at University of California Moores Cancer Center.
Dr. Razelle Kurzrock is known for developing 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 personalized medicine strategy, embodied in a protocol called PREDICT for Profile-related Evidence Determining Individualized Cancer Therapy. This approach utilized advanced molecular technologies to match patients with targeted cancer treatment that is more likely to work for their individual tumors.
At Moores Cancer Center, Dr. Kurzrock’s charge is broad, including not just growing and innovating the center’s clinical trials program, but also heading its newly established Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy. This center focuses on precision medicine trials, using the most innovative genomically-targeted drugs and/or agents that arm the immune system. This program is a global leader in precision medicine, bringing the first personalized 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). As a physician-scientist, Dr. Kurzrock brings extraordinary expertise and experience in clinical research, business operations, regulatory operations, financial and budget planning, and administrative oversight, in addition to her world-recognized work in translational science. Dr. Kurzrock received her MD degree from the University of Toronto and has over 750 peer-reviewed publications, and a uniquely strong record of competitive grant funding within the setting of Phase I program building.
Dr. Kurzrock also has a strong history of building outstanding education/training programs. At University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, she founded and directed the MS/PhD program (degree granting) in Human Biology and Patient-Based Research, as well as the Fellowship in Investigational Cancer Therapeutics. At UCSD Moores Cancer, she founded and directs the Fellowship in Personalized Cancer Therapy.
Dr. Kurzrock has four children and three dogs and lives with her husband, Dr. Philip Cohen, a dermatologist, in San Diego, CA.