Robert E. Schoen, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and serves as director of Colorectal and GI Cancer Prevention and Control Research for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
Dr. Schoen is active investigator and leading researcher in early detection and prevention of Colorectal Cancer. He is Chair of the colorectal section of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial, a randomized cancer screening trial which is studying flexible sigmoidoscopy as a means of reducing mortality to colorectal cancer. The trial is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, and has enrolled over 155,000 individuals.
Dr. Schoen leads the UPMC colorectal section of the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), also funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This effort is trying to develop blood tests for early detection of colon cancer. Dr. Schoen is also actively exploring new biomarkers of colorectal cancer, such as aberrant crypt foci, thought to be the precursor of colorectal polyps.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia College in New York City, Dr. Schoen obtained an M.D. in 1984 from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, also in New York City. Dr. Schoen completed his medical residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a general internal medicine fellowship at New York Hospital through Cornell University Medical College and a gastroenterology fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center through the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Following his appointment to the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in July 1991 in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology, Dr. Schoen was selected for a National Cancer Institute sponsored post-doctorate fellowship in Cancer Prevention and Education, under which he completed a Master’s in Public Health in epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health in 1994.
Dr. Schoen was awarded a five-year preventative oncology academic award from NCI in 1997. He has received funding from the NCI, American Cancer Society, American College of Gastroenterology, Pennsylvania State Department of Health, and the Obesity and Nutrition Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies including the American College of Physicians, American Gastroenterological Association, and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and is newly installed as the director of the Pittsburgh Gut Club. A reviewer at several medical journals, including Gastroenterology, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and others, Dr. Schoen has served as a grant reviewer for the NIH, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, as well as other international cancer organizations in the UK and the Netherlands. He has published many refereed articles, abstracts, book chapters, invited articles and letters.
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