VUMC's Dubois is lone American accepted into prestigious Royal College of Physicians

Dr. Raymond N. DuBois Jr., associate director for cancer prevention at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, has been selected for membership into the Royal College of Physicians, the oldest medical association in the United Kingdom and one of the oldest in the world.

DuBois

DuBois, the Mina Cobb Wallace Professor of Cancer Research, will be formally admitted to the college during a ceremony Nov. 29 in London. He was selected for "admission without examination," which is restricted to a select number of individuals in recognition of their "exceptionally distinguished contributions in the field of medicine," said Professor Ian Gilmore, registrar of the Royal College.

Only nine members have been elected to the Royal College this year, and DuBois is the only American among them.

The Royal College was created in 1518 by royal charter of King Henry VIII and has since been engaged in a variety of activities dedicated to the upholding and improvement of standards in the practice of medicine.

Today, the college includes more than 8,500 fellows, most of them physicians in the United Kingdom, and 6,000 collegiate members worldwide. The college issues reports and recommendations on a variety of issues ranging from practice standards to the impact of tobacco and alcohol on public health.

DuBois, who joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1991, also serves as director of the Division of Gastroenterology. He is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of cancer prevention and specifically the development of colorectal cancer and the potential of aspirin-like drugs to prevent -- and possibly treat -- that and other forms of cancer.

He recently co-chaired the National Cancer Institute's Progress Review Group on Colorectal Cancer, which reviewed and issued recommendations to NCI Director Dr. Richard Klausner on the state of research in the field. He serves as one of seven scientific advisors to the Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, a nationwide initiative spearheaded by NBC's Katie Couric and fund-raiser Lilly Tartikoff to increase awareness of colorectal cancer, promote early detection and raise funds for research.

DuBois is a national co-investigator in a major study now under way to test whether the arthritis drug celocoxib can prevent the formation of precancerous polyps in the colon. He also serves as the president of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, president of the Gastroenterology Research group and associate editor for Cancer Research, the primary journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.