Dr Vogelzang has dedicated his professional life to cancer patients and to cancer research. Beginning with his college research project at Argonne National laboratory near Chicago through a 24 year career at the University of Chicago in cancer care, education and research, to his current position as a senior scientific leader of US Oncology Research, he remains dedicated to curing cancer, one patient at a time. His resume reflects this life long dedication to cancer medicine.


As a James Scholar at the University of Illinois Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine he published his first laboratory work. While serving his internship and residency at Rush Presbyterian St Lukes Medical Center in Chicago, he was selected Intern of the year, Resident of the Year and Chief Medical Resident. While there, he wrote one of the early papers on combination chemotherapy for lung cancer. After his fellowship at the University of Minnesota, he served for 2 years on the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Medicine where he focused on genitourinary and thoracic malignancies, publishing his first paper on mesothelioma. Moving to join the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1982, he continued to publish research studies on mesothelioma and genitourinary cancers. He was promoted through the academic ranks to full professor in 1993 and became the Fred C Buffett Professor in Genitourinary Oncology in 1999. That same year he became Director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center (UCCRC). In 2004 he moved to become the founding Director of the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada, bringing for the first time, academic cancer research to the 2 million residents of Las Vegas. In 2009 he joined Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada as a practicing medical oncologist. He also became a senior leader in US Oncology Research (an organization based in Houston, Texas) and a member of their executive committee. US Oncology Research is conducting hundreds of cancer clinical trials with over 1300+ oncologists across the United States. He serves as the national chair and medical director of their Developmental Therapeutics committee and co-chair of the Genitourinary committee. He also serves as vice chair of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) genitourinary oncology committee and as a senior advisor on mesothelioma to the SWOG lung cancer committee. He has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and thousands of reviews, abstracts, chapters, speeches, presentations and service times on local and national committees.

His interest in mesothelioma began in Minnesota when he cared for two sisters with the disease and published a paper on the geographic distribution of the disease in a state with limited asbestos exposure. Building on that interest, he saw many mesothelioma patients at the University of Chicago and began to lead the mesothelioma research programs of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), a national cancer research organization . For over 15 years, his leadership resulted in more than 20 papers on various chemotherapy regimens and the CALGB prognostic system for meso (Hyperlink to papers). At the University of Chicago he teamed up with radiologists to develop new CT techniques for measuring and tracking the responses of mesothelioma to chemotherapy. In 1998 he was asked by Eli Lilly Inc. to consult on a new drug pemetrexed (Alimta) which had shown promise in treating mesothelioma in an early European study. This led to his leadership on the largest mesothelioma phase III trial ever conducted which compared the chemotherapy agent cisplatin to cisplatin plus pemetrexed (Alimta). That trial, published in 2003-hyperlink to the paper-showed that the 2 drug regimen improved the survival and quality of life of mesothelioma patients. That regimen is now the standard treatment for mesothelioma patients world wide. Dr Vogelzang continues to be actively involved in mesothelioma patient care and research. He is the current Chairman of the Board of the Mesothelioma Foundation. Patients can schedule appointments with him at his office in Las Vegas at 702-952-3400.

EDUCATION:

Dr. Vogelzang received his medical degree from the University of Illinois in Chicago. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago and he completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

Mesothelioma
Genitourinary Malignancies (prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancer).

EXPERIENCE:

Dr. Vogelzang is a renowned medical oncologist and cancer researcher who has authored/coauthored numerous peerreviewed articles, book chapters and abstracts and has given hundreds of lectures and presentations to his peers. Dr. Vogelzang joined Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada (CCCN) as a medical oncologist in 2009 and he also serves as Chair and Medical Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee and Co-Chair of the Genitourinary Committee for US Oncology Research. Prior to joining CCCN, Dr. Vogelzang was Director of the Nevada Cancer Institute from 2004-2009. His other prior experience includes serving as a faculty member at the University of Chicago and later as the Director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.

BOARD CERTIFIED:

Internal Medicine
Medical Oncology

MEMBERSHIPS IN PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

American Association of Cancer Research
American College of Physicians
American Society of Clinical Oncology
American Urological Association
Chicago Urological Society
Clark County Medical Society
European Society for Medical Oncology
International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
Kidney Cancer Association
Mesothelioma Foundation
Nevada Oncology Society
Society of Urologic Oncology