University of Minnesota Medical School Welcomes Charles Ryan

Charles J. Ryan, MD

Charles J. Ryan, MD

Charles J. Ryan, MD, will soon be joining the University of Minnesota Medical School as director of the Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation Division in the Department of Medicine, effective April 2018. Additionally, he will serve as associate director for clinical research in the Masonic Cancer Center and will hold the B.J. Kennedy Chair in Clinical Medical Oncology.

Currently a professor of clinical medicine and urology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Ryan is also the associate director for clinical science at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and a Thomas Perkins Distinguished Professor in Cancer Research.

His clinical and research work focuses on novel therapies for advanced prostate cancer, particularly secondary hormonal therapies targeting adrenal androgen signaling, insulin growth factor inhibitors, androgen receptor targeted therapy and chemotherapy. His studies have brought to light the roles of androgens, the androgen receptor, and other signaling mechanisms in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The studies that Ryan led on abiraterone acetate (Zytiga), for example, helped to define the role of the agent in patients with CRPC. He has published over 100 articles and chapters in the world’s leading medical journals.

Ryan has received numerous awards, including the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine Evergreen Award, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Award, and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B: Young Investigator Award. He was also awarded the Donald Coffey Career Development Award from the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the California Coalition to Cure Prostate Cancer Award, and the Mentor Award from the Division of Hematology/Oncology. He is the recipient of a Leadership and Service Award and the John Kimberly Curtis Award from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

He currently serves as Program Leader for Genitourinary Medical Oncology at UCSF and as co-chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Prostate Cancer Task Force. He is the leader of the Advanced Prostate Cancer Cadre in the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a national clinical trials group.