Dr. Robert Alan Hromas, MD

ROBERT A. HROMAS, M.D., graduated from medical school at the University of Texas at Houston, where he was named the Outstanding Student in Internal Medicine. Hromas trained in blood cancers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with the Nobel Laureate Don Thomas and then joined the faculty at Indiana University Medical Center for 13 years before going to the University of New Mexico. He is a leader in translating research into the discovery of new cancer drugs. A professor and the chief of hematology-oncology at UNM, Hromas also was the deputy director of the UNM Cancer Center, the official cancer center of New Mexico and one of only 66 National Cancer Institute-designated centers in the United States. Hromas has published more than 135 research articles, including a recent study in the American Journal of Medicine that the new cancer drug Gleevec was being prescribed less often for elderly patients with chronic myeloid leukemia than for younger patients. This finding added to the national debate about age discrimination in cancer treatment and was covered in multiple media outlets. Hromas has held more than $8 million in cancer research grants, and has numerous national medical and scientific leadership positions. He has chaired grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health and for the American Cancer Society. He has served on the Lance Armstrong Foundation Scientific Board and has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, honor societies for physician-scientists. He has won multiple teaching and patient care awards, including the Indiana University Board of Regents Teacher of the Year and the New Mexico People Caring Award.