Research Summary

Dr. Cooperberg has a long experience in prostate cancer clinical and outcomes research, with specific areas of interest including early detection, risk assessment, biomarker validation, health services research, oncologic and health-related quality of life outcomes, comparative effectiveness, and disparities research. He has an extensive research history with CaPSURE and other registry and our institutional databases and tissue bank. He has a strong research interest in prostate cancer risk assessment, and led development and validation of the UCSF Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment (CAPRA) pre- and post-operative scores, as well as validation multiple tissue-based genomic markers now in wide clinical use.

From 2013 to 2020 he served as Associate Editor for European Urology, the leading peer-reviewed journal in urology, and as of 2023 am Associate Editor for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. He also served as the physician lead on the American Urological Association’s new AUA Quality (AQUA) national disease registry with goals of documentation practice patterns, quality of care, and outcomes for patients across the nation with urologic diseases. In 2015, Cooperberg won the AUA Gold Cystoscope Award, awarded annually to one urologist based on contributions to the field within the first ten years of practice.

He has a longstanding interest in the development and validation of prostate cancer imaging tests and other biomarkers for prognostic risk, and led the pivotal validation studies for two of the three commercial tissue tests currently on the market for newly diagnosed prostate cancer. He has been PI on an R01 investigating miRNA as a noninvasive risk stratification tool for prostate cancer, and will soon start new one looking examining the black box of pathology artificial intelligence algorithms through the lens of spatial multi-omics. He serves as Urology co-Leader for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Prostate Program and is also Chief of Urology at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Research Funding

  • August 10, 2016 - July 31, 2021 - Improving Prostate Cancer Outcome Prediction Through Noninvasive exRNA Assessment , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA198145
  • August 8, 2012 - May 31, 2017 - Prospective validation of a multi-marker prostate cancer prediction model , Co-Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA160816

Education

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, BA, 1991-95, English
Yale University, New Haven, CT, MD, MPH, 1995-00, Medicine, Health Policy

Honors & Awards

  • 1995
    College honors: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, high honors in major, Presidential Scholar, Rufus Choate Scholar, B. William Hochman Prize in American Literature
  • 1996
    American Cancer Society Research Fellowship
  • 1999
    AMA John Conley Ethics Essay Contest, honorable mention
  • 2003
    UCSF Prostate Cancer Research Symposium, 2nd place, Clinical Research
  • 2004
    UCSF Prostate, Breast, Prostate SPORE Scientific Retreat, honorable mention, Clinical Research
  • 2005
    Northern California Urology Resident Research Symposium, 1st place, Clinical Research
  • 2006
    Northern California Urology Resident Research Symposium, 3rd place, Clinical Research
  • 2007
    AUA Gerald P. Murphy Prostate Scholar
  • 2007
    Northern California Urology Resident Research Symposium, 2nd place, Clinical Research
  • 2007
    Western Section AUA Miley B. Wesson Resident Essay Contest, 3rd place
  • 2008
    Society of Urologic Oncology Poster Session, 3rd place overall
  • 2008
    Western Section AUA Miley B. Wesson Resident Essay Contest, 3rd place
  • 2008
    Western Section AUA Poster Session I, 1st place
  • 2017
    2016 physician award, Marin Prostate Cancer Information and Support Group

Selected Publications

  1. Li KD, Carlisle MN, Jarosek S, Patel HV, Faris A, Elliott SP, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR, Breyer BN Evolving Risk of Urinary Adverse Events Across Localized Prostate Cancer Treatments: A Propensity-weighted Analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare Data.  View on PubMed
  2. Cooperberg MR Prostate Cancer Active Surveillance Without Biopsy? Not Quite Yet, but Watch This Space.  View on PubMed
  3. Rojo Domingo M, Do DD, Conlin CC, Bagrodia A, Barrett T, Baxter MT, Cooperberg M, Feng F, Hahn ME, Harisinghani M, Hollenberg G, Javier-Desloges J, Kallis K, Kamran S, Kane CJ, Kessler D, Kuperman J, Lee KL, Levine J, Liss MA, Margolis DJA, Matthews I, Murphy PM, Nakrour N, Ohliger M, Ollison C, Osinski T, Pamatmat AJ, Pompa IR, Rakow-Penner R, Roberts JL, Shabaik AS, Song Y, Song D, Tempany CM, Trecarten S, Wehrli N, Weinberg EP, Woolen S, Xu G, Zhong AY, Dale AM, Seibert TM Restriction Spectrum Imaging as a Quantitative Biomarker for Prostate Cancer With Reliable Positive Predictive Value.  View on PubMed
  4. Shee K, Cowan JE, Ding CC, Wang L, Pace W, Greenland N, Simko JP, Washington SL, Shinohara K, Nguyen HG, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR. Gleason Grade Group 3 Represents a Spectrum of Disease: Results from a Large Institutional Cohort. Eur Urol Focus. 2025 May 14.  View on PubMed
  5. Liang M, Zhao Y, Lin DW, Cooperberg M, Zheng Y Estimating optimally tailored active surveillance strategy under interval censoring.  View on PubMed
  6. Cooperberg MR PARP inhibitors for prostate cancer: for whom and when?  View on PubMed
  7. Chesner LN, Polesso F, Graff JN, Hawley JE, Smith AK, Lundberg A, Das R, Shenoy T, Sjöström M, Zhao F, Hu YM, Linder S, Chen WS, Hawkins RM, Shrestha R, Zhu X, Foye A, Li H, Kim LM, Bhalla M, O'loughlin T, Kuzuoglu-Ozturk D, Hua JT, Badura ML, Wilkinson S, Trostel SY, Bergman AM, Ruggero D, Drake CG, Sowalsky AG, Fong L, Cooperberg MR, Zwart W, Guan X, Ashworth A, Xia Z, Quigley DA, Gilbert LA, Feng FY, Moran AE. Androgen Receptor Inhibition Increases MHC Class I Expression and Improves Immune Response in Prostate Cancer. Cancer Discov. 2025 Mar 03; 15(3):481-494.  View on PubMed
  8. Van Blarigan EL, McKinley MA, Washington SL, Cooperberg MR, Kenfield SA, Cheng I, Gomez SL. Trends in Prostate Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jan 02; 8(1):e2456825.  View on PubMed
  9. Castaneda P, Kuhlmann PK, Ithisuphalap J, Howard LE, Klaassen Z, Rivera LG, Amling CL, Aronson WJ, Cooperberg MR, Kane CJ, Terris MK, Freedland SJ Alternate definitions of adverse pathology to predict a very high risk of metastasis in men with intermediate- and low-risk prostate cancer.  View on PubMed
  10. Baxter MT, Conlin CC, Bagrodia A, Barrett T, Bartsch H, Brau A, Cooperberg M, Dale AM, Guidon A, Hahn ME, Harisinghani MG, Javier-DesLoges JF, Kamran SC, Kane CJ, Kuperman JM, Margolis DJA, Murphy PM, Nakrour N, Ohliger MA, Rakow-Penner R, Shabaik A, Simko JP, Tempany CM, Wehrli N, Woolen SA, Zou J, Seibert TM. Advanced Restriction Imaging and Reconstruction Technology for Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ART-Pro): A Study Protocol for a Multicenter, Multinational Trial Evaluating Biparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Advanced, Quantitative Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging for the Detection of Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol Open Sci. 2025 Jan; 71:132-143.  View on PubMed
  11. Sundaresan VM, Webb L, Rabil M, Golos A, Sutherland R, Bailey J, Rajwa P, Seibert TM, Loeb S, Cooperberg MR, Catalona WJ, Sprenkle PC, Kim IY, Leapman MS Risks of grade reclassification among patients with Gleason grade group 1 prostate cancer and PI-RADS 5 findings on prostate MRI.  View on PubMed
  12. Cooperberg MR. Re: Artificial Intelligence and Radiologists in Prostate Cancer Detection on MRI (PI-CAI): An International, Paired, Non-inferiority, Confirmatory Study. Eur Urol. 2024 Nov 21.  View on PubMed
  13. Zhao Y, Gulati R, Yang Z, Newcomb L, Zheng Y, Zhu K, Liu M, Heijnsdijk EAM, Haffner MC, Cooperberg M, Eggener SE, De Marzo AM, Kibel AS, Rizopoulos D, Hall IJ, Etzioni R. Projected Outcomes of Reduced-Biopsy Management of Grade Group 1 Prostate Cancer: Implications for Relabeling. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2024 Nov 20.  View on PubMed
  14. Ajjawi I, Loeb S, Cooperberg MR, Catalona WJ, Gross CP, Ma X, Leapman MS. Active Surveillance or Watchful Waiting for Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer, 2010-2020. JAMA. 2024 Nov 20.  View on PubMed
  15. Nik-Ahd F, Anger JT, Cooperberg MR, Freedland SJ. Prostate cancer in transgender women - challenges in research and clinical care. Nat Rev Urol. 2024 Nov 04.  View on PubMed
  16. Washington Iii SL, Fakunle M, Wang L, Braun AE, Leapman M, Cowan JE, Cooperberg MR. County-level racial disparities in prostate cancer-specific mortality from 2005 to 2020. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2024 Nov 01; 8(6).  View on PubMed
  17. Gaylis FD, Leapman MS, Ellis SD, Hu S, Cooperberg MR, Loeb S, Chen RC, Cohen ES, Dato PE, Aynehchi S, David R, Topp R, Santomauro B, Ginsburg K, Catalona WJ. Feasibility of Pay for Performance and Transparency Interventions on the Selection and Quality of Observational Management for Patients with Low-Risk Prostate Cancer in the Community Practice. Urol Pract. 2024 Oct 25; 101097UPJ0000000000000745.  View on PubMed
  18. Cooperberg MR, Braun AE, Berlin A, Kibel AS, Eggener SE, CANCER-GG1 Writing Group
    . When is prostate cancer really cancer? J Natl Cancer Inst. 2024 Oct 01.  View on PubMed
  19. Patel SA, Patil D, Smith J, Saigal CS, Litwin MS, Hu JC, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR, Klein EA, Kibel AS, Andriole GL, Han M, Michalski JM, Wood DP, Hembroff LA, Spratt DE, Wei JT, Sandler HM, Hamstra DA, Pisters L, Kuban D, Regan MM, Wagner A, Crociani CM, Kaplan I, Sanda MG, Chang P, PROST-QA/RP2 Consortium. Postprostatectomy Radiotherapy Timing and Long-Term Health-Related Quality of Life. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Oct 01; 7(10):e2440747.  View on PubMed
  20. Shee K, Nie J, Cowan JE, Wang L, Washington SL, Shinohara K, Nguyen HG, Cooperberg MR, Carroll PR. Determining Long-term Prostate Cancer Outcomes for Active Surveillance Patients Without Early Disease Progression: Implications for Slowing or Stopping Surveillance. Eur Urol Oncol. 2025 Apr; 8(2):380-386.  View on PubMed

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