Primo N. Lara, Jr., M.D.

Dr. Lara is Director of the NCI-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Executive Associate Dean for Cancer Programs in the UC Davis School of Medicine. During his career, Dr. Lara has received research funding from the National Institutes for Health/National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Cancer Society, as well as other funding agencies. He is Principal Investigator (PI) of several funded programs, including the NCI P30 Cancer Center Support, NCI K12 Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Training Grant, and UM1 Early Therapeutics Award (Phase I: California Cancer Consortium), among others. He has also been PI on prior NCI-funded R21 and R01 grants and has successfully led numerous clinical trials, ranging from phase I to III. Dr. Lara has authored or co-authored over 325 peer-reviewed manuscripts, most notably on novel or emerging anti-neoplastic strategies in GU and lung cancers and is proud to have mentored many junior faculty throughout his career. He currently serves as Deputy Chair, and is Group Co-Chair elect of SWOG, one of the nation’s leading publicly funded cancer clinical trial cooperative groups.