Walter Urba, M.D., Ph.D., leads the fight at the Robert W. Franz Cancer Research Center, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute and has dedicated his professional life to combating cancer.
Dr. Urba was at UCLA pursuing his Ph.D. when he came to a realization. "I became impatient with how slowly basic research progressed and questioned what I was really contributing," Dr. Urba recalls. "I knew I had to do something directly with patients; I had to see how my scientific research would really benefit patients." That’s when the scientist decided to become a physician, too.
Dr. Urba was finishing medical school in 1980 when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. "My concerns were the same as any son’s," he says. "I was worried about losing my mother; about what she would have to go through, about my dad and brothers and sisters. We had a young daughter and a newborn son, and I thought about whether they would know their grandma."
Dr. Urba chose a residency program at Morristown Memorial Hospital near his parents’ New Jersey home. Because of his mother’s diagnosis and treatment, he had a heightened awareness of cancer patients and their problems during his training. He found that the oncologists he worked with were the best role models for him. "Oncology appealed to me because I would get to use everything I knew about medicine in my work."
With his Ph.D. and M.D. in hand, Dr. Urba began an oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland. Following the completion of his fellowship, he was able to blend his expertise in immunology and oncology as he worked at the Biological Response Modifier Program of the NCI.