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Phuoc T. Tran, MD, PhD

Academic Title:

Professor

Primary Appointment:

Radiation Oncology

Administrative Title:

Vice Chair of Research

Phone (Primary):

410-369-5233

Fax:

410-347-0870

Education and Training

Degrees

  • MD PhD; Oregon Health and Sciences University - School of Medicine (2003)

Residencies

  • Radiation Oncology; Stanford University School of Medicine (2008)

Board Certifications

  • American Board of Radiology (Radiation Oncology) (2009)

Biosketch

Dr. Phuoc T. Tran is Professor and Vice Chair for Research of Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Dr. Tran treats patients with cancers of the genitourinary system and uses stereotactic radiation techniques (such as SRS and SBRT/SABR) for the treatment of patients with oligometastatic disease. His research focuses on the improvement of clinical radiotherapy for the treatment of primarily prostate cancer, but also adrenal, bladder, urethral, testicular and penile cancer as well as patients with oligometastatic disease.

Dr. Tran completed his medical and graduate training at the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland. He conducted a residency in radiation oncology at the Stanford University Medical Center and spent a decade on the faculty of Johns Hopkins reaching the level of tenured Professor before joining the University of Maryland.

Dr. Tran has published more than 200 scholarly works, has received numerous awards for his research, and is a primary investigator on a number of clinical trials. He is a member, holds or has held leadership positions in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), NRG Oncology and the American Society for Radiology Oncology (ASTRO), and is board certified in radiation oncology by the American Board of Radiology. He is also a senior editor/editorial board member of Cancer Research and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Please visit: 

https://www.tranlaboratory.com/

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/dtrs/ROBIN-OligoMET-Center/

 

Research/Clinical Keywords

Radiosensitizers; Genetically engineered mouse models of disease; Epithelial Plasticity (Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Mesenchymal-Epithelial Transition); oligometastasis

Highlighted Publications

View all on PubMed

Phuoc T. Tran*, Pavan K. Bendapudi*, H. Jill Lin*, Peter Choi, Shan Koh, Joy Chen, George Horng, Nicholas P. Hughes, Lawrence H. Schwartz, Vincent A. Miller, Toshiyuki Kawashima, Toshio Kitamura, David Paik+ and Dean W. Felsher+.  Survival and Death Signals Can Predict Tumor Response to Therapy After Oncogene Inactivation.  Sci Transl Med 3 (2011) 103ra99**.  PMID: 21974937; PMCID: PMC3966995.* - these authors contributed equally; and + - corresponding authors

Reem Malek*, Hailun Wang*, Kekoa Taparra, Phuoc T. Tran.  Therapeutic targeting of epithelial plasticity programs – Focus on the epithelial-mesenchymal transition.  Cells Tissues Organs 203 (2017) 114-127. PMID: 28214899.  PMCID: PMC5375029.* - these authors contributed equally.

Jeffrey J. Tosoian, Michael A. Gorin, Ashley E. Ross, Kenneth J. Pienta, Phuoc T. Tran, Edward M. Schaeffer. Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer: Definitions, Clinical Outcomes, and Treatment ConsiderationsNat Rev Urol 14 (2017) 15-25. PMID: 27725639.

Kekoa Taparra*, Hailun Wang*, Reem Malek*, Audrey Lafargue, Mustafa A. Barbhuiya, Xing Wang, Brian W. Simons, Matthew Ballew, Katriana Nugent, Jennifer Groves, Russell D. Williams, Takumi Shiraishi, James Verdone, Gokben Yildirir, Roger Henry, Bin Zhang, John Wong, Ken K. Wang, Barry D. Nelkin, Kenneth J. Pienta, Dean Felsher, Natasha E. Zachara+, Phuoc T. Tran+.  O-GlcNAcylation is required for mutant KRAS-induced lung tumorigenesisJ Clin Invest 128 (2018) 4924-4937**. PMID 30130254.  PMCID: PMC6205381.* - these authors contributed equally; and + - corresponding authors. ** - Highlighted in Cancer Res – Breaking Advances

Ryan Phillips, William Yue Shi, Matthew Deek, Noura Radwan, Su Jin Lim, Emmanuel S. Antonarakis, Steven P. Rowe, Ashley Ross, Michael A. Gorin, Curtiland Deville, Stephen C Greco, Hailun Wang, Samuel R. Denmeade, Channing J. Paller, Shirl Dipasquale, Theodore L. DeWeese, Daniel Y. Song, Hao Wang, Michael A. Carducci, Kenneth J. Pienta, Martin G. Pomper, Adam P. Dicker, Mario A. Eisenberger, Ash A. Alizadeh, Maximilian Diehn, Phuoc T. TranOutcomes of Observation versus stereotactic ablative RadiatIon for OLigometastatic prostate CancEr – The ORIOLE Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol 6(2020) 650-659**. PMID 32215577. PMCID: PMC7225913. ** - Editorial in JAMA Oncol, Ranked by Altmetric in top 10% of JAMA Oncol papers & Highlighted in Cancer Discovery & Nat Rev Urol

Felix Y Feng+, Huei-Chung (Rebecca) Huang, Daniel E. Spratt, Howard M Sandler, Jeffrey P Simko, Elai Davicioni, Paul L Nguyen, Alan Pollack, Jason A Efstathiou, Adam P Dicker, Rajdeep Das, James Dignam, Darby JS Thompson, Shuang Zhao, Tamara Todorovic, Jennifer Margrave, Yang Liu, Bashar Dabbas, Christopher J. Sweeney, Gerhardt Attard, Jean-Paul Bahary, Himanshu R Lukka, William A Hall, Thomas M Pisansky, Amit B Shah, Stephanie L Pugh, William U Shipley, Phuoc T Tran+. Validation of a 22-Gene Genomic Classifier in Patients with Recurrent Prostate Cancer: An Ancillary Study of the NRG/RTOG 9601 Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol 7 (2021) 544-552**. PMID 33570548. PMCID: PMC7879385. + - corresponding authors** - Editorial in JAMA Oncol and Ranked by Altmetric in top 10% of JAMA Oncol papers (https://jamanetwork.altmetric.com/details/99977450#score).

Matthew P. Deek, Kim Van der Eecken, Ryan Phillips, Neil R. Parikh, Pedro Isaacsson Velho, Tamara Lotan, Amar U. Kishan, Tobias Maurer, Movember GAP6 Consortium, Paul C. Boutros, Christopher Hovens, Matthew Abramowtiz, Alan Pollack, Neil Desai, Bradley Stish, Felix Y. Feng, Mario Eisenberger, Michael Carducci, Kenneth J. Pienta, Channing J. Paller, Emmanuel S. Antonarakis, Alejandro Berlin, Piet Ost, Phuoc T. Tran The mutational landscape of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer – the spectrum theory revisited. Eur Urol 80 (2021) 632-640. PMID 33419682.

Research Interests

Dr. Tran’s research focuses on the improvement of clinical radiotherapy for the treatment of primarily prostate, as well as adrenal, bladder, penile, testicular and urethral cancer. To learn how tumors arise, how they spread and why some cancers are resistant to treatment, he studies tumor cell epithelial plasticity - transitions of epithelial and mesenchymal cellular states.

Dr. Tran and his laboratory focus their studies on tumor cell epithelial plasticity - the transitions between epithelial and mesenchymal cellular states and the implications of these transitions for tumorigenesis, cancer treatment resistance and radiation-induced fibrosis. Their research utilizes a variety of inducible transgenic mouse models, non-invasive rodent imaging as well as more traditional molecular, biochemical and cell biologic approaches. One of these transitions, known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), is a conserved developmental program that when inappropriately activated in post-natal life has been associated with organ fibrosis, tumorigenesis and metastasis.

A major focus of the laboratory is the use of inducible mouse models to simulate molecularly targeted therapies for malignancies and radiation induced late effects.

Another focus of the laboratory is the study of novel targeted agents as tumor selective radiosensitizers to increase the therapeutic ratio of clinical radiotherapy.

The Tran lab is committed to translating discoveries from the laboratory bench into novel cancer prevention, diagnostic and treatment approaches that can be tested in the clinic.

Please visit: 

https://www.tranlaboratory.com/

https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/dtrs/ROBIN-OligoMET-Center/

Clinical Specialty Details

Adrenal Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Image-Guided Radiation Therapy, Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), Metastatic Bone Disease, Metastatic Disease, Oligometastatic Disease, Penile Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Radiation Oncology, Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy, Testicular Cancer, Urethral Cancer

Awards and Affiliations

Honors

  • Fellow, Henry S. Kaplan Research, 2007
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Alumni Award, Oregon Health & Sciences University Chapter, 2013
  • Fellow, Parker B. Francis, 2008 - 2011
  • Fellow, Radiological Society of North America Research, 2008
  • John Muir College Caledonian Honor Society, University of California, 1995
  • 1R01CA166348-01A1, National Cancer Institute , 2013 - 2018
  • Sidney Kimmel Translational Scholar Award, 2013 - 2015
  • Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund Award, 2013 - 2014
  • Early Career Achievement Award, Oregon Health & Sciences University School of Medicine Alumni Association , 2013
  • Research Scholar, American Cancer Society , 2012 - 2016
  • Uniting Against Lung Cancer Award, 2012 - 2014
  • Included among Top Doctors, Baltimore Magazine, 2012
  • Educator of The Year, Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO) , 2012
  • Prostate Cancer Physician Research Training Award, DoD , 2011 - 2016
  • The Phyllis and Brian L. Harvey Scholar - Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund Award, 2011 - 2013
  • Junior Faculty Career Research Training Award, ASTRO, 2009 - 2011
  • Malcolm A. Bagshaw Award, 2007
  • Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop Scholarship, ASCO/AACR , 2007
  • Research Resident, Radiological Society of North America , 2006
  • Roentgen Resident Research Award, Radiological Society of North America , 2006
  • Deans Medical Student Research Award, OHSU, 2003
  • Molecular Hematology Research Training Fellow, OHSU, 1998 - 2001
  • Laurel Merit MD/PhD Scholar, OHSU, 1996 - 2003
  • Graduated magna cum laude, University of California, 1996
  • Regents Scholar, University of California, 1995 - 1996
  • Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award, 2015
  • ASCO Leadership Development Program, 2015
  • Movember Foundation-PCF Challenge Award, 2015
  • Johns Hopkins Discovery Award, 2016 - 2017
  • 1R21CA223403-01-01, National Cancer Institute, 2018
  • 1U01CA212007-01A1, National Cancer Institute, 2018
  • 1U01CA231776-01, National Cancer Institute, 2018
  • 1U01CA231776-S1, National Cancer Institute, 2021
  • 1U54CA273956-01 - Radiation Oncology-Biology Integration Network (ROBIN) Oligometastasis (OligoMET) Center, National Cancer Institute, 2022

Memberships

  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society , 2013
  • American Association for Cancer Research , 2007
  • American College of Radiation Oncology , 2005
  • American College of Radiology, 2004
  • American Society for Radiation Oncology, 2004
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology , 2007
  • American Thoracic Society, 2008 - 2012
  • Radiation Research Society , 2011
  • Radiological Society of North America , 2004
  • The EMT International Association , 2011

Grants and Contracts

1U01CA212007-01A1       Fertig/Ewald/Popel/Tran (PI)            04/01/18-03/31/23

NIH/NCI

Integrating bioinformatics into multiscale models for hepatocellular carcinoma

Role: MPI

 

1U01CA231776-01        Hann/Marchionni/Tran (PI)                09/03/18-08/31/23

NCI

Bioinformatic-Chemical Approach to Credential Molecular Targets to Combat Rapid Chemo-Radiation Resistance in SCLC

Role: MPI

 

20CHAL03                              Pienta/Tran (PI)                        1/1/21-12/31/22 NCE

Movember-Distingished Gentlemen’s Ride-PCF Challenge

“Radiolabeled systemic therapy with SABR for castration sensitive prostate cancer oligometastatic disease”

Role: MPI

 

3U01CA231776-03S1    Hann/Marchionni/Tran (PI)                04/01/21-08/31/23

NCI
Tumor-barcoding coupled with high-throughput sequencing of a novel chemoradiation resistant SCLC mouse model

Role: MPI

 

W81XWH-21-1-0296               Tran (PI)                                  5/1/21-4/30/24

Dept of Defense CDMRP Prostate Cancer Research Program

Novel biomarkers to direct stereotactic ablative radiotherapy in castration-sensitive oligometastatic prostate cancer

Role: PI

 

1U54CA273956-01         Sawant/Simone/Tran (PI)                    8/01/22-07/30/27

NCI 
Radiation Oncology-Biology Integration Network on Oligometastasis (ROBIN OligoMET) Center

Role: Contact PI

 

Links of Interest