Dr. Daniel Von Hoff '69

1994 Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Achievement

Dr. Daniel Von Hoff '69 has been driven with a desire to beat cancer, and that flame was lit at Carroll where he graduated cum laude with a degree in biology and chemistry. Today he is recognized as one of the world’s leading cancer researchers cited as a pioneer in the development of promising cancer drugs, including those for the treatment of leukemia, breast cancer, lymphoma, prostate and pancreatic cancer. His major interest is the development of anti-cancer agents to accelerate the development of cancer drugs.
 
Carroll was a special place for Dr. Von Hoff, as it was not only formative to the early stages of his research career, but it was where he met his wife, Ann (Leighton) Von Hoff '70. Von Hoff received his medical degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, then completed a medical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Von Hoff then moved to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he rose to Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology. In 1989, Dr. Von Hoff became the Founding Director of the Institute for Drug Development at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio. In 1999, he became Director of the Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona.
 
Dr. Von Hoff has served as editor of numerous scientific publications. He is founder and Editor Emeritus of “Investigational New Drugs: The Journal of New Anticancer Agents” as well as the founding and current Editor-in-Chief of “Molecular Cancer Therapeutics”. Previously he was the associate editor of “Cancer Research” and “Clinical Cancer Research”.
 
Dr. Von Hoff runs a Phase I oncology clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he and his team treat patients for whom other cancer treatments have been ineffective. Along with a University of Pennsylvania colleague, Dan received an $18 million grant from Stand Up to Cancer to support their pioneering work on pancreatic cancer. He co-founded ILEX™ Oncology, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme). The ILEX team got two 2 new anti-cancer agents approved by the FDA, including Clolar (clofarabine) for children with leukemia and Campath (alemtuzumab) for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Campath is also now included in trials for patients with multiple sclerosis.
 
He currently serves as Physician-in-Chief and Distinguished Professor of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (Tgen); Professor of Medicine at both Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale and the University of Arizona College of Medicine; and Chief Scientific Officer at Scottsdale Healthcare and US Oncology and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona.
 
Von Hoff served a six-year term on President Bush's National Cancer Advisory Board (June 2004 - March 2010) and served on the FDA’s Oncology Advisory Committee. He is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (the largest cancer research organization in the world), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.