Predictive markers in colorectal cancer: where are we now?

Abstract

Heinz-Josef Lenz speaks to Ruth Williamson, Commissioning Editor: Heinz-Josef Lenz is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Preventive Medicine, and holds the Kathryn Balakrishnan Chair for Cancer Research. He is associate director of clinical research and co-chair of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the University of Southern California (USC) Center for Molecular Pathways and Drug Discovery at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles (CA, USA). Dr Lenz received his medical degree from Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany, and went on to complete a residency in hematology and oncology at the Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany, before completing clerkships in oncology and hematology at George Washington University (WA, USA) and the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), respectively. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the USC Keck School of Medicine. Dr Lenz’s research focus is in the identification of biomarkers in gastrointestinal cancers, early drug development and novel clinical trials. He is co-chair of Southwest Oncology Group Gastrointestinal Committee, co-chair of Southwest Oncology Group Gastrointestinal Translational Medicine and a member of the NCI Gastrointestinal Steering Committee, NCI Gastroesophageal Task Force and NCI Correlative Science Committee. He is the USC principal investigator on the U01, N01 and U10 NIH grants and NIH contract with City of Hope and the University of California Davis.