Toshiaki Iwase, MD, PhD

Toshiaki Iwase, MD, PhD

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Medical Director, Clinical Trials Office, University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center
Core Clinical Member, Translational and Clinical Research, University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center

Academic Appointment(s):
Associate Professor (Associate Researcher), University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Degree(s):
MD, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
PhD, Chiba Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan

Undergraduate Training

2006 - International Scholarship Program for Internal Medicine, University of Hawaiʻi, John A. Burns School of Medicine, HI

Postgraduate Training and Education

2023-2024 - Assistant Professor (Assistant Researcher), Translational and Clinical Research; Investigator-Initiated Early Phase Clinical Trial Development and Regulatory Director, Clinical Trials Office, University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI
2021-2023 - Clinical Instructor, Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
2017-2021 - Postdoctoral Fellow, Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research Department of Breast Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
2016-2017 - Assistant Professor, Section of Breast Surgical Oncology Department of General Surgery, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan
2013-2016 - Chiba Graduate School of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, PhD, Medicine, Chiba, Japan
2009-2013 - Clinical Fellowship, Section of Breast Surgical Oncology Department of General Surgery, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan
2008-2009 - Clinical Fellowship, Emergency Medicine, Division of Emergency and Critical Care, Kawasaki Citizen Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
2006-2008 - Clinical Residency, Iwata Municipal Hospital, Shizuoka, Japan

Honor(s)

2024 - The 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, GRASP Advocate Award
2023 - The 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, GRASP Advocate Award
2022 - 7th International Inflammatory Breast Cancer Symposium Best Poster Award
2017 - Relay for Life My Oncology Dream Awards, Japan Cancer Society
2010 - Best Resident of the Year, Department of General Surgery, Chiba Graduate School of Medicine

Research Focus

Dr. Iwase is an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center. He is also appointed as a Medical Director at the Clinical Trials Office (CTO).

The research efforts of Dr. Iwase are centered on the development of cutting-edge treatments for cancer and the identification of novel predictive biomarkers through the execution of early-phase clinical trials. Additionally, he is deeply committed to promoting Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity in clinical trials involving diverse patient populations in Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) by building a clinical trial infrastructure in CTO and the partner sites.

During the development of early-phase clinical trials in the past, Dr. Iwase has devoted considerable effort to translating preclinical research findings into early-phase clinical trials to establish proof-of-concept for promising therapeutic strategies. He has leveraged his expertise to design and execute a diverse array of early-phase clinical trials featuring investigational new drugs (INDs) in collaboration with prominent pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and the NCI-Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP). In addition to the clinical trial development, Dr. Iwase is passionate about conducting translational clinical research targeting the immune tumor microenvironment of aggressive breast cancer.

Selected Publications

Iwase T, Wang X, Thi Hanh Phi L, Sridhar N, Ueno NT, Lee J. (2024). Advances in targets in inflammatory breast cancer. Int Rev Cell Mol Biol. 2024;384:125-152. doi: 10.1016/bs.ircmb.2023.10.005. Epub 2024 Feb 5. PMID: 38637096.

Iwase T, Cohen EN, Gao H, Alexander A, Kai M, Chiv V, Wang X, Krishnamurthy S, Liu D, Shen Y, Kida K, Reuben A, Layman RM, Ramirez DL, Tripathy D, Moulder SL, Yam C, Valero V, Lim B, Reuben JM, Ueno NT. (2024). Maintenance Pembrolizumab Therapy in Patients with Metastatic HER2-negative Breast Cancer with Prior Response to Chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Jun 3;30(11):2424-2432. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-23-2947. PMID: 38629963.

Wang X, Semba T, Manyam GC, Wang J, Shao S, Bertucci F, Finetti P, Krishnamurthy S, Phi LTH, Pearson T, Van Laere SJ, Burks JK, Cohen EN, Reuben JM, Yang F, Min H, Navin N, Trinh VN, Iwase T, Batra H, Shen Y, Zhang X, Tripathy D, Ueno NT. (2023). EGFR is a master switch between immunosuppressive and immunoactive tumor microenvironments in inflammatory breast cancer. Sci Adv. 2022 Dec 16;8(50):eabn7983. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn7983. Epub 2022 Dec 16. PIMD: 36525493.

Xie X, Lee J*, Iwase T*, Kai M, Ueno NT. (2022). Emerging drug targets for triple-negative breast cancer: a guided tour of the preclinical landscape. Expert Opin Ther Targets. 2022 May;26(5):405-425. doi: 10.1080/14728222.2022.2077188. Epub 2022 May 23. (*co-first author).

Iwase T, Blenman KRM, Li X, Reisenbichler E, Seitz R, Hout D, Nielsen TJ, Schweitzer BL, Bailey DB, Shen Y, Zhang X, Pusztai L, Ueno NT. (2021). A Novel Immunomodulatory 27-Gene Signature to Predict Response to Neoadjuvant Immunochemotherapy for Primary Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Sep 28;13(19):4839. doi: 10.3390/cancers13194839. PMID: 34638323.

Iwase T, Wang X, Shrimanker TV, Kolonin MG, Ueno NT. (2021). Body composition and breast cancer risk and treatment: mechanisms and impact. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2021 Apr;186(2):273-283. doi: 10.1007/s10549-020-06092-5. Epub 2021 Jan 21. PMID: 33475878.

Iwase T, Sangai T, Fujimoto H, Sawabe Y, Matsushita K, Nagashima K, Sato Y, Nakagawa A, Masuda T, Nagashima T, Ohtsuka M. (2020). Quality and quantity of visceral fat tissue are associated with insulin resistance and survival outcomes after chemotherapy in patients with breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2020 Jan;179(2):435-443. doi: 10.1007/s10549-019-05467-7. Epub 2019 Oct 16. PMID: 31620935.

Publication list via PubMed