Jeffrey S. Abrams, MD
Associate Director
Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program

In June 2007, Jeffrey S. Abrams, MD, a long-time DCTD staff member, was selected to lead the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) as associate director, following the retirement of Dr. Michaele Christian who had directed the program for 10 years. Dr. Abrams has been a member of CTEP since 1993, when he joined as a clinical research scientist to oversee the breast cancer treatment trials portfolio and participate in clinical trials at the Clinical Center and the National Naval Medical Center.

In 2004, Dr. Abrams was appointed chief of the Clinical Investigations Branch and in this position is responsible for the direction of the NCI Clinical Trials Cooperative Group program. This program performs nearly all the phase III cancer treatment trials sponsored by NCI and is the Institute's primary vehicle for conducting definitive, practice-changing clinical trials. As branch chief, Dr. Abrams supervises a staff that collectively oversees, reviews, and coordinates more than 150 active phase III trials in all varieties of cancer. He pioneered the Cancer Trials Support Unit, which has established a national network of physicians to participate in NCI-sponsored Phase III treatment trials.

Dr. Abrams, whose NCI achievements have been recognized by five NIH Merit Awards and several Performance Awards, is the author of over 70 original publications in the field of breast cancer and clinical trials, eight book chapters, and nine monographs. He is often called upon to speak at national and international meetings on breast cancer diagnosis and treatment as well as methods to enhance the performance of large clinical trials.

Dr. Abrams graduated from the medical school of Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, in 1979. In 1982, he completed an internal medicine residency at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and an oncology fellowship at the University of Maryland in 1984. A Fulbright scholarship took him to the Jules Bordet Institute in Belgium for a clinical research fellowship in oncology from 1984 to 1985. From 1985 to 1992, Dr. Abrams returned to the University of Maryland where he directed the Breast Cancer Evaluation Program and was Associate Professor of Medicine and Oncology.