Donald Lamm, MD, FACS

Dr Lamm is president of BCG Oncology in Phoenix, Arizona. He is former professor of urology at the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, and professor and chief of urology at West Virginia University and the University of Texas, San Antonio. Dr Lamm completed his residencies at University of California at Los Angeles Wadsworth Veterans Administration Medical Center in general surgery and the University of California at San Diego in urology.Dr. Lamm has had a lifelong interest in urologic oncology and clinical trials and has a particular interest in immunotherapy and chemoprevention. He was awarded the initial NIH-funded contract to evaluate BCG immunotherapy of superficial bladder cancer in a randomized clinical trial (1978). This work, accruing an eventual 231 patients, resulted in the first controlled trial demonstrating the efficacy of intravesical BCG immunotherapy.   Subsequent NIH-funded research demonstrated the superiority of intravesical BCG over oral administration and the efficacy of intravesical without percutaneous BCG immunotherapy. Subsequent SWOG studies under his direction demonstrated the superiority of BCG immunotherapy over doxorubicin and mitomycin chemotherapy. The former SWOG study resulted in the FDA approval of BCG for the treatment of CIS and the latter resulted in the approval of TICE BCG for the prophylaxis of recurrent papillary transitional cell carcinoma. Most recently, the SWOG study directed by Dr. Lamm demonstrated that three-week maintenance BCG immunotherapy reduces tumor long-term recurrence by 27% and significantly reduces disease worsening compared with standard induction therapy.Dr Lamm has authored numerous articles in such peer-reviewed journals as Journal of Urology, The New England Journal of Medicine,  Investigative Urology, Urologic Research, and Cancer.