Michael P. Lance, MD, FRCP

Dr. Lance was professor of medicine, molecular and cellular biology, and public health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also served as co-director of Cancer Prevention and Control and was director of the Arizona Clinical and Translational Research and Education Consortium, Tucson Program, at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. Dr. Lance specialized in treatment and prevention of gastrointestinal cancers. He serves as the principal investigator for several National Cancer Institute sponsored clinical trials. Dr. Lance was a physician scientist with research interests that extend from basic investigations of colorectal carcinogenesis to clinical and translational studies that include oversight, as Principal Investigator (PI), of large phase III colorectal cancer prevention studies. He was Board Certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, and has been consistently funded as a principal investigator by NIH/NCI, and earlier the Veterans Administration, since the early 1990s. With this background and experience, Dr. Lance was well suited to be both overall PI of the University of Arizona Gastrointestinal Special Program of Research Excellence and Clinical Co-Leader of Project 1, “Molecular and Metagenomic Characteristics of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancers.” He has extensive experience leading large multi-disciplinary research projects across multiple institutions. Formerly, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Dr. Lance was contracted as a site PI for NCI’s Polyp Prevention Trial, led by Arthur Schatzkin, PhD. Subsequently, at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, he had been PI of multi-institutional Program Project (P01) and R01 grants that have funded two placebo-controlled Phase III colorectal adenoma chemoprevention trials: ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) (n=1,285 participants); and, most recently, a selenium supplement + celecoxib, alone or in combination (n=1,824 participants). An invaluable, meticulously archived biobank, now comprising ~250,000 biospecimens (tissues, plasma, genomic DNA, urine, feces, etc.), collected from participants in these trials (and an earlier trial of Wheat Bran Fiber) was the platform for over 40 publications over five years; preliminary fecal microbiota and bile acid data for Project 1 in the current application were derived from UDCA trial participant fecal specimens. Dr. Lance was a tenured professor of medicine, molecular and cellular biology, and public health. He also was deputy director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center, Phoenix.