Tanya Barauskas Dorff, M.D., F.A.S.C.O.
- Prostate Cancer
- Bladder Cancer
- Testicular Cancer
- Penile Cancer
- Genitourinary Malignancies
- CAR T Cell Therapy
- Novel Immune-based Strategies for Prostate Cancer
- Division Chief, Genitourinary Disease Program
- Professor, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research
Tanya Barauskas Dorff, M.D., F.A.S.C.O., is a professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research and serves as division chief of the Genitourinary Disease Program at City of Hope. She is an internationally recognized leader in prostate cancer, and is renowned for her work in other genitourinary tumor types, including kidney, bladder and penile cancer.
Dr. Dorff graduated summa cum laude from University of Houston before attending the UCLA School of Medicine. There, she was inducted into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha honors society. She subsequently completed her internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and finished subspecialty training in hematology and oncology at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.
After nearly 10 years on faculty at USC, Dr. Dorff joined City of Hope in 2018 and has published over 152 peer-reviewed manuscripts in top-tier journals, including Nature Medicine, Lancet Oncology, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. She has been invited to speak at multiple national and international meetings, and serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Prostate Cancer Guidelines Committee and the co-chair for prostate cancer in the SWOG genitourinary committee.
Dr. Dorff’s research interests in prostate cancer are wide-ranging. In the area of clinical trials, she is heavily involved in the design and conduct of trials with immunotherapy and exploring treatment combinations. She has also worked on trials examining lifestyle (supplements, exercise) and treatment side effects (cognitive function). With funding from NCI and PCF she has led a trial adding PARP inhibitor therapy to doublet hormone therapy for patients with metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer, actively leads trials through SWOG and NRG cooperative groups, in addition to leading multiple phase 1 first-in-human trials in partnership with industry.
Dr. Dorff leads City of Hope’s joint effort with the Prostate Cancer Foundation to develop novel immune-based strategies for prostate cancer. Specifically, she leads an effort to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells — cells that are primed to target prostate cancer tissue. These strategies have been transformative in certain blood-based cancers. She is also engaging with TGen scientists to study ctDNA as a biomarker of minimal residual disease and the impact of the microbiome on treatment outcomes.
With an overarching goal of providing access to the most promising new therapeutics and innovative treatment strategies, Dr. Dorff leads the national City of Hope genitourinary disease team and aspires to expand access to the robust clinical trial portfolio to multiple City of Hope locations.
Location
Duarte Cancer Center
Duarte, CA 91010
Education & Experience
Board Certifications
- 2003–2013, Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
- 2006–present, Medical Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine
Degrees
- 2000, M.D., AOA, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA
- 1995, B.S., Biology, summa cum laude, University of Houston — Honors College, Houston, TX
Fellowship
- 2003–2006, Hematology & Medical Oncology, LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Residency
- 2001–2003, Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY
Internship
- 2000–2001, Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY
Professional Experience
- 2023–present, Professor, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research, City of Hope, Duarte, CA
- 2017–2023, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research, City of Hope, Duarte, CA
- 2017, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA
- 2008–2017, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA
- 2008–2017, Faculty, Department of Medicine, USC+LAC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
- 2006–2008, Faculty — Voluntary, Department of Medicine, USC+LAC Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Awards & Memberships
Awards
- 2021, Top Women in Medicine
- 2021, Southern California Super Doctors
- 2019, Southern California Top Doctors
- 2019, Top Doctor, Oncology, Los Angeles Business Journal
- 2018, LA Business Journal Top Doctors
- 2018, Exceptional Women in Medicine Award
- 2017, Super Doctors, Los Angeles
- 2016, Mentorship Award — Required Scholarly Project — Keck School of Medicine of USC
- 2014, Faculty Teaching Award, Oncology Fellowship, Keck School of Medicine of USC
- 2012 and 2014, “Top Doctor” Pasadena Magazine
- 2010, AUA Western Section Best Poster — 3rd place
- 2010, Faculty Teaching Award
- 2005, Fellowship Teaching Award
- 2000, Alpha Omega Alpha, Medical Honors Society
- 2000, AMWA Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Citation
- 2000, ACP/ASIM James R. Klinenberg Certificate of Merit
- 1992, National Merit Scholar
Memberships
- European Society for Medical Oncology
- NRG Oncology
- Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer
- 2016–present, Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network
- 2015–present, Academic and Community Cancer Research United, (co-leader GU group)
- 2015–present, Kidney Cancer Association
- 2009–present, Southwest Oncology Group
- 2004–present, American Society of Clinical Oncology
Publications
- Kasparian S, Wei O, Tsai N-C, Palmer J, Pal S, Lyou Y, Dorff T. A practical guide to relugolix: early experience with oral androgen deprivation therapy. Oncologist 2023 Aug 3;28(8):699-705
- Sadeghi S, Quinn D, Dorff T, Pal S, Groshen S, et al. EphrinB4 inhibition and pembrolizumab in metastatic urothelial carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 2023; 41:640-50.
- Saad F, deBono J, Barthelemy P, Dorff T, Mehra N, et al. Patient-reported outcomes in men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer harboring DNA damage response alterations treated with Talazoparib: results from TALAPRO1. Eur URL 2023; 83:352-60.
- Dorff T, Hirasawa Y, Acoba J, pagano I, Tamura D, Pal S, et al. Phase Ib study of patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer treated with different sequencing regimens of atezolizumab and sipuleucel-T. J Immunother Cancer 2021; 9:e002931
- Dorff TB, Stein C, Kortylewski M, Posadas E, Synold T, Quinn D. Evaluating Changes in Immune Function and Bone Microenvironment During Radium-223 Treatment of Patients with Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2020 May 5. doi: 10.1089/cbr.2019.3397. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32366119
- Ballas L, Wei O, Daneshmand S, Schuckman A, Djaladat H, Aron M, D' Souza A, Quinn D, Dorff TB. Chemoradiation for Management of Locally Recurrent or Residual Bladder Cancer: A Case Series and Review of the Literature Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2020 Aug;18(4):e473-e477. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2019.12.016. Epub 2020 Jan 7.Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2020. PMID: 32044240
- Kim DJ, Otap D, Ruel N, Gupta N, Khan N, Dorff TB. NCI-Clinical Trial Accrual in a Community Network Affiliated with a Designated Cancer Center. J Clin Med 2020 Jun 24;9(6):1970. doi: 10.3390/jcm9061970. PMID: 32599694 PMCID: PMC7355880
- Dorff T, Lyou Y, Stein C. Defining Value in Metastatic Prostate Cancer: What Is the Cost of Living Longer and Better? JCO Oncol Pract. 2020 Feb;16(2):53-54. doi: 10.1200/JOP.19.00632. Epub 2020 Jan 21. PMID: 32045557
- Dorff TB, Quinn DI, Pinski JK, Goldkorn A, Sadeghi S, Tsao-Wei D, Groshen S, Kuhn P, Gross ME. Randomized Phase II Trial of Abiraterone Alone or With Dasatinib in Men With Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer (mCRPC). Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2019 Aug;17(4):241-247.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.clgc.2019.02.010. Epub 2019 Mar 19. PMID:31227432
- Dorff TB, Fanti S, Farolfi A, Reiter RE, Sadun TY, Sartor O. The Evolving Role of Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen-Based Diagnostics and Therapeutics in Prostate Cancer. Am Soc Clin Oncol EducBook. 2019 Jan;39:321-330. doi: 10.1200/EDBK_239187. Epub 2019 May 17. PMID: 31099673
For a complete list of Dr. Dorff's publications, please visit this link here.