Naoto T. Ueno, MD, PhD, FACP

Director and Professor of Medicine
NCI-Designated University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Hawaii, USA

Dr. Naoto Ueno is the director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center since December 2022. Prior to his current position, Dr. Ueno served as the Executive Director of the MD Anderson Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) Research Program and Clinic and the chief of the Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology.

Working with his team members, he has created a comprehensive research program and clinic devoted to IBC, becoming the world’s largest and most renowned for rare breast cancer under his leadership. His visionary perspective has allowed him to collaborate on the local and global levels and create a novel, robust strategy that has inspired his team members to thrive and achieve high productivity in the clinical, research, education, and patient communities. His passion is developing and serving a team that creates and provides research-driven compassionate patient care. He has many leadership skills that have helped him build a team culture reflecting diversity and psychological safety.

Dr. Ueno’s research includes the roles and underlying mechanisms of several signaling pathways, including epidermal growth factor receptor, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and Axl receptor tyrosine kinase, in promoting the aggressiveness of TNBC and IBC. He also focuses on determining the impact of the tumor microenvironment on the efficacy of targeted therapy and establishing novel therapeutic approaches by modulating the tumor microenvironment. He has sustained significant extramural funding and has multiple grants from NIH, CPRIT, DOD, and BCRF. His recent works involve the development of T-DXd preclinically and contributed to the DESTINY-BREAST-04 study as a steering committee member. In addition, he conducts numerous investigator-initiated clinical trials (Phase I/II) for patients with advanced breast cancer as a principal investigator based on his laboratory discoveries. He has also assisted and guided numerous colleagues in obtaining grants and research contracts.

Outside of the UH Cancer Center, Dr. Ueno has had extensive experience teaching leadership/communication and clinical research skills for drug development. He is a DDI-certified leadership facilitator and TEDx speaker. Further, he has published two books on patient empowerment in cancer care (10,000 copies each). He is deeply committed to sharing his knowledge and experience. He has mentored numerous medical students, graduate students, and clinical residents and fellows at MD Anderson and The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Dr. Ueno received the Nylene Eckles Distinguished Professorship of Breast Cancer Research in 2012. In addition, he received The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award for his mentoring contributions in 2014 and the MD Anderson Distinguished Clinical Faculty Mentor Award in 2019. He served as a standing member of the NIH’s Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology Study Section. In addition, he is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cancer and serves as an editorial board member of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. As a two-time cancer survivor, he has a unique and comprehensive view of healthcare as a provider, a researcher, and a patient. This experience fuels his passion for patient-centered, research-driven clinical care.