Dr. Robert C. Doebele

Medical Oncologist

University of Colorado Cancer Center

Mesothelioma Clinic
1665 Aurora Court
Aurora, CO 80045
(720) 848-0300

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ - 1993

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA - 2001

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL - 2004

University of Chicago, Chicago, IL - 2007

Dr. Robert C. Doebele is an associate professor in the division of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He joined the University of Colorado in 2008 as a member of the thoracic malignancies program. Prior to assuming this post, Dr. Doebele served as an instructor at the University of Chicago.

Educational Background

Dr. Robert C. Doebele earned his AB in 1993 from Princeton University located in Princeton, New Jersey. He then went on to earn both a PhD and MD from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 2001. Dr. Doebele completed his internship (2002), residency (internal medicine – 2004), and fellowship (internal medicine-medical oncology – 2007) at the University of Chicago in Illinois. Dr. Doebele is board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology, and cancer/oncology.

Clinical and Laboratory Research

Dr. Doebele’s laboratory studies oncogenic gene fusions relative to lung cancer and employs cellular, genetic, molecular, and translational approaches to identify the mechanisms of resistance in targeted lung cancer therapy. The research in his laboratory is aimed at identifying and analyzing oncogenes in lung cancer with the goals of advancing personalized medicine (targeted lung cancer therapies) and improving clinical outcomes for patients with various types of thoracic malignancies.

Additional Work

Dr. Doebele’s research focuses primarily upon thoracic malignancies—non-small cell and small cell lung cancers, malignant thymoma/thymic carcinoma, and malignant mesothelioma. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and the Southwestern Oncology Group (SWOG). Dr. Doebele has served as author or co-author of over 50 published articles and was the recipient of the 2013 V Foundation for Cancer Research, V Scholar Award.

Relevant Publications

Molecularly targeted therapies in non-small-cell lung cancer annual update 2014. Morgensztern D, Campo MJ, Dahlberg SE, Doebele RC, Garon E, Gerber DE, Goldberg SB, Hammerman PS, Heist RS, Hensing T, Horn L, Ramalingam SS, Rudin CM, Salgia R, Sequist LV, Shaw AT, Simon GR, Somaiah N, Spigel DR, Wrangle J, Johnson D, Herbst RS, Bunn P, Govindan R. J Thorac Oncol. 2015 Jan;10(1 Suppl 1):S1-63.

TRKing down an old oncogene in a new era of targeted therapy. Vaishnavi A, Le AT, Doebele RC. Cancer Discov. 2015 Jan;5(1):25-34. Epub 2014 Dec 19.

Phase 2, randomized, open-label study of ramucirumab in combination with first-line pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy in patients with nonsquamous, advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Doebele RC, Spigel D, Tehfe M, Thomas S, Reck M, Verma S, Eakle J, Bustin F, Goldschmidt J Jr, Cao D, Alexandris E, Yurasov S, Camidge DR, Bonomi P. Cancer. 2015 Mar 15;121(6):883-92. Epub 2014 Nov 6.

Phase II trial of stereotactic body radiation therapy combined with erlotinib for patients with limited but progressive metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. Iyengar P, Kavanagh BD, Wardak Z, Smith I, Ahn C, Gerber DE, Dowell J, Hughes R, Abdulrahman R, Camidge DR, Gaspar LE, Doebele RC, Bunn PA, Choy H, Timmerman R. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Dec 1;32(34):3824-30. Epub 2014 Oct 27.

Crizotinib in ROS1-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer. Shaw AT, Ou SH, Bang YJ, Camidge DR, Solomon BJ, Salgia R, Riely GJ, Varella-Garcia M, Shapiro GI, Costa DB, Doebele RC, Le LP, Zheng Z, Tan W, Stephenson P, Shreeve SM, Tye LM, Christensen JG, Wilner KD, Clark JW, Iafrate AJ. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 20;371(21):1963-71. Epub 2014 Sep 27.

The minority report: targeting the rare oncogenes in NSCLC. McCoach CE, Doebele RC. Curr Treat Options Oncol. 2014 Dec;15(4):644-57.

A phase II, open-label study of ramucirumab in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin as first-line therapy in patients with stage IIIB/IV non-small-cell lung cancer. Camidge DR, Berge EM, Doebele RC, Ballas MS, Jahan T, Haigentz M Jr, Hoffman D, Spicer J, West H, Lee P, Yang L, Joshi A, Gao L, Yurasov S, Mita A. J Thorac Oncol. 2014 Oct;9(10):1532-9.