Roy A. Jensen, MD

Director, University of Kansas Cancer Center
William R. Jewell, MD Distinguished Kansas Masonic Professor
rjensen@kumc.edu

Roy A. Jensen, MD, combines exceptional experience in the laboratory and international leadership in pathology to lead The University of Kansas Cancer Center.

Since becoming director in 2004, he has recruited a world-class leadership team and implemented a vision to move the University of Kansas closer to obtaining the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center.  

Dr. Jensen has been at the forefront in the characterization of premalignant and malignant breast lesions, particularly the earliest genetic alterations that result in breast neoplasia, and the transition from situ disease to invasion.  His laboratory was instrumental in demonstrating the role of BRCA1 in the growth control of normal and malignant cells and in how loss of BRCA1 function contributes to the development of breast cancer. 

Background

Dr. Jensen was born in Gardner, Kansas and earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Pittsburg State University.  Dr. Jensen went on to receive his Medical Degree from Vanderbilt University in 1984.  He completed his residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Vanderbilt University Hospital and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  His postdoctoral training included an American Cancer Society Fellowship in Surgical Pathology and a Biotechnology Training Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.  Following his fellowship training, he returned to Vanderbilt in 1991 as a faculty member in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology.   

University of Kansas Cancer Center

Dr. Jensen assumed the director position of KUCC in 2004.  He also serves as director of the Kansas Masonic Cancer Research Institute (KMCRI), the research arm of KUCC.  Jensen is the first recipient of the William R. Jewell, MD Distinguished Kansas Masonic Professorship in Cancer Research.  He also serves as professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, and professor of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine.  He additionally holds an adjunct professorship in molecular biosciences at the University of Kansas.

Membership Organizations

• American Association of Cancer Institutes
• American Association for Cancer Research
• American Association for the Advancement of Science
• American Society for Cell Biology
• American Association for Cancer Education
• American Society for Investigative Pathology
• Arthur Purdy Stout Society
• United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology

Recent Publications

1. Campbell M, Qu S, Wells S, Sugandha H, and Jensen RA:  An adenoviral vector containing an Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)-integrin binding motif in the fiber knob enhances protein product levels from transgenes refractory to expression.  Cancer Gene Therapy, 10:  559-570, 2003.
2. Gorska AE, Jensen RA, Shyr Y, Aakre ME, Bhowmick NA and Moses HL:  Transgenic Mice Expressing a Dominant-Negative Mutant Type II TGF-B Receptor Exhibit Impaired Mammary Development and Enhanced Mammary Tumor Formation.  American Journal of Pathology 163: 1539-1549, 2003.
3. Page DL, Simpson JF, Jensen RA, and Carter BA:  Atypical ductal hyperplasia on core biopsy.  Is there a subset of ADH lesions on core that does not require local excision?  Pathology Case Reviews 8: 245-248, 2003.
4. Yamagata N, Shyr Y, Yanagiasawa K, Edgerton ME, Dang TP, Gonzalez A, Nadaf S, Larsen P, Roberts JR, Nesbitt JC, Jensen RA, Levy S, Moore JH, Minna JD, and Carbone DP: A Training-Testing Approach to the Molecular Classification of Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.  Clinical Cancer Research 9: 4695-4704,  2003.
5. Gobbi H,  Simpson JF, Jensen RA,  Olson SJ,  and Page DL:  Metaplastic Spindle Cell Breast Tumors Arising Within Papillomas, Complex Sclerosing Lesions, and Nipple Adenomas.  Modern  Pathology 16(9):  893-901, 2003.
6. Kasami M, Jensen RA, Simpson JF and Page DL: Lobulocentricity of Breast Hypersecretory hyperplasias with cytologic atypia – Infrequent association with carcinoma in situ.  American Journal of Clinical Pathology 122(5): 714-720, 2004.
7. Chaurand P, Sanders ME, Jensen RA,  and Caprioli RM: Proteomics in diagnostic pathology:  the promise of molecular profiles for cancer diagnosis and prognosis.  American Journal of Pathology, 165: 1057-1068, 2004.  Review
8. McLaren BK, Schuyler PA, Sanders ME, Jensen  RA, Simpson JF, Dupont WD, and Page DL:  Excellent Survival, Cancer Type, and Nottingham Grade Following Atypical Lobular Hyperplasia on Initial Breast Biopsy.  Cancer 107(6):  1227-1233, 2006.
9. Rizki A, Weaver VM, Chin K, Moonlee S-Y, Rozenberg G, Myers CA, Bascom JL, Mott JD, Jensen RA, Peterson OW, Chen DJ, Chen F, Gray JW, Bissell MJ:  Identification of functionally significant changes in transition from premalignant to malignant phenotype.  Cancer Cell, submitted 2006.
10. Hoshino A, Yee CJ, Campbell M,  Woltjer RL Townsend  RL, van der Meer R, Shyr Y, Holt JT, Moses HL, and Jensen  RA: Effects of BRCA1 Transgene Expression on Murine Mammary Gland Development and Mutagen-Induced Mammary Neoplasia.  American Journal  of Pathology, Submitted 2007.