Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff is a distinguished physician and internationally recognized leader in cancer therapeutics and translational medicine. He currently serves as Physician in Chief and Distinguished Professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona, where he directs transformative research initiatives bridging genomic discoveries with clinical applications. Dr. Von Hoff holds the Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research at HonorHealth Clinical Research Institute and serves as Professor of Medicine at both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Arizona College of Medicine. His career began with internal medicine training at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by an oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, establishing the foundation for his pioneering work in cancer drug development.
Dr. Von Hoff's groundbreaking research has fundamentally transformed cancer treatment paradigms, most notably through his leadership in developing gemcitabine, which became the first FDA-approved treatment for pancreatic cancer in 1996. He has personally been involved in over 200 clinical trials and published more than 800 scientific papers, 143 book chapters, and over 1,190 abstracts, establishing him as one of the most prolific contributors to oncology literature. His work in targeted therapies has directly improved patient outcomes for multiple cancer types, particularly in the challenging domain of pancreatic cancer where treatment options were previously limited. Dr. Von Hoff's development of novel drug evaluation methodologies has become standard practice in oncology research, significantly accelerating the translation of laboratory discoveries into effective clinical treatments.
Beyond his research accomplishments, Dr. Von Hoff has profoundly shaped the oncology field through his mentorship of thousands of clinical investigators via the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop, which he co-founded and which has trained over 2,000 physicians worldwide. He serves as Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs and was founding Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, guiding the publication of seminal research that advances cancer treatment. Recognized with the prestigious 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and the AACR Distinguished Public Service Award, Dr. Von Hoff continues to lead innovative research in precision therapies for pancreatic cancer, focusing on overcoming treatment resistance through genomic approaches. His current work aims to identify distinct pancreatic cancer cell populations responsible for therapy resistance, potentially unlocking new treatment strategies for this devastating disease.
