Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD

Programs & Centers

Medical Oncology, Cancer Center, Yale, Thoracic Oncology Program

Clinical Interests

Lung cancer; Thoracic Oncology; Personalized Cancer Medicine; Clinical Trials for Lung cancer; Tumor profiling; Tumor biomakers

Bio

Dr. Herbst is a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, Chief of the Medical Oncology and Associate Director for Translational Science at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center (YCC). Prior to his appointment at Yale, Herbst was a professor of medicine, chief of the Section of Thoracic Medical Oncology, and the Barnhart Family Distinguished Professor in Targeted Therapies at MD Anderson Cancer Center. His primary mission is the enhanced integration of clinical, laboratory, and research programs to bring new treatments to cancer patients.

Dr. Herbst’s laboratory work is focused on angiogenesis and dual EGFR/VEGFR inhibition in NSCLC and targeting KRAS-activated pathways. This work has been translated from the preclinical to clinical setting in multiple phase II and III studies which he has led. He has led the Phase I development of several of the new generation of targeted agents for NSCLC, including gefitinib, erlotinib, and bevacizumab. He co-led the BATTLE-1 effort at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and now leads the BATTLE-2 clinical program at Yale. He serves as a Co-Program Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at YCC.

Dr. Herbst is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum for which he has organized an IOM meeting focused on policy issues in personalized medicine. He is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), where he chairs the Tobacco Task Force, as well as the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Institute of Medicine’s National Cancer Policy Forum. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Herbst is also a member of the medical advisory committee for the Lung Cancer Research Foundation and chair of the communications committee for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and has current grant funding for his work from numerous sources including the National Cancer Institute, AACR and multiple charitable foundations.

After earning a B.S. and M.S. from Yale University summa cum laude, he received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and earned a Ph.D. in molecular cell biology from the Rockefeller University. Dr. Herbst completed his medical oncology fellowship at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and a medical hematology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he additionally received a master’s degree from Harvard University in their clinical investigator training program.

Board Certifications

• Medical Oncology, Board Certified 1997, Recertified 2007

Education & Training

• Fellowship, Brigham and Women`s Hospital, Medical Hematology, 1997
• Fellowship, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Medical Oncology, 1997
• MMS, Harvard University, 1997
• Residency, Brigham and Women`s Hospital, Internal Medicine, 1994
• M.D., Cornell University Medical College, 1991
• Ph.D., Rockefeller University, 1990
• B.S., Yale University, 1984
• M.S., Yale University, 1984

Clinical Research