Richard Van Etten, MD, PhD

Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD

Specialties

Hematology-Oncology, Internal Medicine

Clinical Interests

acute leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, immune therapy, lymphoblastic leukemia, molecularly targeted drug therapy

Nickname: Rick
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Certifications
  • American Board of Internal Medicine, Hematology
  • American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine
Language
  • English
Gender
Male
Medical School
Stanford University
Residency
Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical SchoolInternal Medicine
Fellowship
Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical SchoolHematology
Grad School
Stanford University — PhD, biophysics
Professional Positions
  • Director — UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Senior Associate Dean — Cancer, UCI School of Medicine
  • Professor — Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, UCI School of Medicine
  • Contributing Editor — UpToDate® editorial board
  • Member — Journal of Clinical Oncology editorial board
  • Member — American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • Member — American Society of Hematology
  • Member — American Society of Clinical Oncology
  • Member — Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, Leukemia Committee
Awards and Recognition
  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1978
  • Sigma Xi (associate member), 1978
  • Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship, National Institutes of Health, 1978-84
  • Malcolm B. Hecht Fellowship, Division of Hematology, Brigham & Women's Hospital, 1987-88
  • Cancer Research Scholar Award, American Cancer Society, 1989-92
  • Lucille P. Markey Scholar Award, 1990-97
  • Carl and Margaret Walter Scholar in Blood Research, Harvard Medical School, 1994-2003
  • Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 1998-2003
  • Laurie Strauss Leukemia Foundation Lecturer, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 2000
  • Stohlman Scholar, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 2003
  • Fellow, American College of Physicians, 2008
  • Zucker Family Research Prize, Tufts University School of Medicine, 2008
  • Physicians of Excellence, Orange County Medical Association — 2019-2023
More Information

Dr. Richard Van Etten is a fellowship-trained UCI Health hematologist and oncologist who specializes in the treatment of leukemia and other blood disorders. As director of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, he leads a team of more than 200 physicians, scientists and other health science professionals. His research lab studies the pathogenesis and therapy of human blood cancers, with particular emphasis on myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms that are associated with dysregulated tyrosine kinases.

As a medical student and doctoral candidate in biophysics at Stanford University, Van Etten worked on the molecular genetics of mammalian mitochondrial DNA with biochemist David A. Clayton, PhD. After postgraduate training in internal medicine and hematology at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, he was a postdoctoral fellow under Nobel laureate David Baltimore, PhD, at the Whitehead Institute in Boston.

Van Etten went on to become a physician at Brigham & Women's Hospital and a faculty member in the departments of genetics and medicine at Harvard Medical School until 2003, when he joined Tufts University as professor of medicine. At Tufts, he held several positions, including leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program and member of the graduate programs in Genetics, Immunology, & Molecular/Cellular Physiology at Tufts University. He assumed his first cancer center leadership role at Tufts Cancer Center in 2007 as acting associate director for clinical sciences and was appointed director in 2009.

Van Etten became director of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center on Oct. 1, 2013.

UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
101 The City Drive South, Building 23
Orange, CA 92868
Phone: 714-456-8000
Fax: 855-211-3729
UCI Health — Costa Mesa
1640 Newport Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Phone: 949-999-2400
Fax: 844-965-9446