Dr. Nicholas Mitsiades is a physician-scientist and practicing medical oncologist at UC Davis Health. Mitsiades serves as professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, and as the Albert Holmes Rowe Chair of Genetics Ill, Endowed Chair at UC Davis. He also serves as the chief translational officer and associate director for translational research of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center where he coordinates and facilitates the implementation of innovative technologies into oncology practice.

Mitsiades is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Research Impact

Mitsiades is leveraging genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches, as well as animal models, in order to develop novel targeted therapeutics for cancer and to make them available to patients via biomarker-driven clinical trials. His own active clinical practice in genitourinary oncology is focused on providing outstanding care to patients with advanced prostate cancer. He is strongly committed to clinical and translational research and to the clinical care of patients with advanced cancer, with special emphasis in serving minority populations and in particular African American patients with prostate cancer, a population experiencing dramatic health disparities.

Minority and underserved populations have historically experienced institutional barriers to health care, resulting in disparities in clinical outcomes. In recent years, the high cost of next-generation sequencing (NGS), which systemically restricts access only to patients who can afford it via commercial insurance or other personal financial means, has become an additional structural factor for further disparities. As a result, minority and uninsured patients have been underrepresented in NGS studies and NGS-based precision oncology clinical trials so far. A major focus of Mitsiades’ clinical activities is to facilitate equitable access to molecular testing and to biomarker-driven targeted therapies for marginalized and minority patients, in order to improve their clinical outcomes.