Dr. Alice Chen, M.D.
Alice Chen, M.D., became the Head of the Developmental Therapeutics Clinic (DTC) in 2015. Her wide-ranging clinical experience includes over 25 years as a clinical investigator of many early phase clinical trials, including the first ever phase 0 trial performed under an exploratory initiative with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as "first-in-human" phase 1 clinical trials. During her time in private practice in Corpus Christi, TX, she was voted Super Doctor by Texas Magazine in 2004 and 2005. She had been the primary investigator for the Molecular Profiling-based Assignment of Cancer Therapy (MPACT) and co-primary investigator for the nationwide Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (MATCH) trial, both part of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Precision Medicine Initiative. She has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications. Recently, she led a phase 2 clinical trial reported in the New England Journal of Medicine evaluating atezolizumab for alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS), which led to US FDA approval of atezolizumab for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic ASPS. She is the recipient of 12 NCI/NIH Awards of Merit for her contribution to international relationships, adverse event reporting, CTCAE, PRO-CTCAE, and the Precision Medicine Initiative.
Selected Publications
Chen AP, Sharon E, O'Sullivan-Coyne G, Moore N, Foster JC, Hu JS, Van Tine BA, Conley AP, Read WL, Riedel RF, Burgess MA, Glod J, Davis EJ, Merriam P, Naqash AR, Fino KK, Miller BL, Wilsker DF, Begum A, Ferry-Galow KV, Deshpande HA, Schwartz GK, Ladle BH, Okuno SH, Beck JC, Chen JL, Takebe N, Fogli LK, Rosenberger CL, Parchment RE, Doroshow JH. Atezolizumab for Advanced Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma. N Engl J Med. 2023 Sep 7;389(10):911-921. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2303383. PMID: 37672694.
Gross AM, O'Sullivan Coyne G, Dombi E, Tibery C, Herrick WG, Martin S, Angus SP, Shern JF, Rhodes SD, Foster JC, Rubinstein LV, Baldwin A, Davis C, Dixon SAH, Fagan M, Ong MJ, Wolters PL, Tamula MA, Reid O, Sankaran H, Fang F, Govindharajulu JP, Browne AT, Kaplan RN, Heisey K, On TJ, Xuei X, Zhang X, Johnson BC, Parchment RE, Clapp DW, Srivastava AK, Doroshow JH, Chen AP, Widemann BC. Selumetinib in adults with NF1 and inoperable plexiform neurofibroma: a phase 2 trial. Nat Med. 2025 Jan;31(1):105-115. doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03361-4. Epub 2025 Jan 6. PMID: 39762421.
O'Dwyer PJ, Gray RJ, Flaherty KT, Chen AP, Li S, Wang V, McShane LM, Patton DR, Tricoli JV, Williams PM, Iafrate AJ, Sklar J, Mitchell EP, Takebe N, Sims DJ, Coffey B, Fu T, Routbort M, Rubinstein LV, Little RF, Arteaga CL, Marinucci D, Hamilton SR, Conley BA, Harris LN, Doroshow JH. The NCI-MATCH trial: lessons for precision oncology. Nat Med. 2023 Jun;29(6):1349-1357. doi: 10.1038/s41591-023-02379-4. Epub 2023 Jun 15. PMID: 37322121.