NCI Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Research

As the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Research, Dr. James H. Doroshow works closely with the NCI director and other deputy directors to carry out NCI’s mission, particularly as it relates to clinical trials and translational investigations.

Dr. Doroshow joined NCI in 2004 as director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD), a position he continues to hold today. Dr. Doroshow has led the effort to modernize NCI’s clinical research infrastructure through the Clinical Trials Working Group and has initiated several programs to strengthen discovery and development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics across the institute. These include the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program, the NCI Formulary, the Patient-Derived Models Repository (PDMR), the Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies (PACT), the Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Centers-Cancer Immunologic Data Commons (CIMAC-CIDC) Network, the NCI Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI–MATCH) and NCI-Children's Oncology Group (NCI-COG) Pediatric MATCH clinical trials, and the National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). Key benefits of this work have included accelerating the ability to bring cancer drugs and biomarkers to the clinic and improving the ability to personalize treatments for individual patients. 

In early 2020, as part of NCI’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Doroshow led the rapid launch of the NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS). In this natural history study, researchers will follow 2,000 individuals with cancer and COVID-19 and collect clinical information and biospecimens over two years. Findings will inform our understanding of COVID-19’s impact on patients with cancer, as well as cancer’s impact on the course of COVID-19, and how both can best be managed. 

Dr. Doroshow oversees his own active laboratory program focused on understanding the role of inflammation-related oxidative signaling in the development and treatment of solid tumors.

Dr. Doroshow is a member of the National Academy of Medicine's Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation as well as its National Cancer Policy Forum and is the author of more than 500 publications covering topics in cancer biology, molecular pharmacology, and clinical research.


Dr. Doroshow received his bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1969 and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1973. After completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology branches of NCI.