Naoto Ueno

Naoto T Ueno (born March 1964) was a Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; his research is in the area of inflammatory breast cancer and the molecular mechanism of metastasis and tumorigenicity. Ueno was also a visiting professor with the Keio University.

He moved from MD Anderson Cancer Center to the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center as a director on December 12, 2022. His vision is to address the health disparity in Hawaiʻi and US Affiliated Pacific Islands through transformative research. Furthermore his goal is to make sure that no one needs to leave the islands to receive high-quality of care regardless of their financial background. He currently practice at Queenʻs Medical Center and Kapiolani Chidren and Womenʻs Hospital.

He is a breast medical oncologist who specializes in inflammatory, triple-negative, and metastatic breast cancer. He is best known for his preclinical development of E1A gene therapy and multiple preclinical developments, which led to novel clinical trials related to inflammatory and triple-negative breast cancer.

He is well known for both his passion and commitment to cancer research and researching translational breast cancer. He is currently studying cancer metastasis, MAPK/EGFR pathways, and cancer microenvironment. He was the executive director of the Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program and Clinic and Section Chief of the Translational Breast Cancer Research at the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The Univeristy of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

He was invited to talk about patient empowerment at the Tokyo TEDx in 2011.

As a two-time cancer survivor, he is committed to patient empowerment and the development of multidisciplinary care. He is the founder of the Japan TeamOnclogy Program and CancerX. Learning from Asia, especially from Japan, to enhance team approach in oncology has shown success of bringing in novel approaches to tackle difficult team development in Asia countries.

Awards

 * 1995-1996	Clinical Fellow Research Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center
 * 1996 	       Cancer Research Achievement Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center
 * 1996 	       Houston Endowment, Jesse H. Jones Fellowship in Cancer Education
 * 1996 	       Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research Award, Pharmacia and Upjohn
 * 1998	               American Association Cancer Research-Glaxo Wellcome Oncology Clinical Research Scholar Award for Promising Translation or Clinical Research, Glaxo Wellcome
 * 2008 	       6th Robert M. Chamberlain Distinguished Mentor Award Nomination (Top Three Finalist), MD Anderson
 * 2011	               Amgen Basic Research Award, 2nd Prize for Mentoring, MDACC
 * 2013	               Regent's Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Texas
 * 2013	               Bradley Stuart Beller Special Merit ASCO Merit Award for Hiroko Masusda, MD, PhD (Mentee)
 * 2018                   Rune for the Cure Foundation. Unknown Hero Award.