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VCU Massey Cancer Center welcomes physician-researcher William McGuire III, M.D., as the director of the Phase 1 Solid Tumor Program. Also a medical oncologist and member of the Developmental Therapeutics research program at Massey, McGuire joined the VCU Department of Internal Medicine in fall 2014 as a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care.

In his role as director of the Phase 1 Solid Tumor Program, McGuire collaborates with Massey physicians and researchers to translate preclinical discoveries involving new drugs or combinations of existing drugs for the treatment of solid tumors, such as cervical, breast, prostate, colorectal, and brain cancer, into phase 1 clinical trials. He also collaborates to advance promising early-phase clinical research into phase 2 and phase 3 trials. He is currently working to develop investigational approaches for the treatment of both ovarian and endometrial malignancies.

An expert in gynecologic cancers and developmental therapeutics, McGuire was instrumental in the development of paclitaxel as part of the standard of care for advanced ovarian cancer. He has published more than 25 book chapters and 260 studies and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals. He has served on the review board for the Physician Data Query, the National Cancer Institute’s cancer database, and on the editorial boards for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. He currently serves on the editorial board for the American Journal of Cancer.

Prior to joining Massey, McGuire served as medical director of the Gynecologic Cancer Outreach Program at Inova Fairfax Hospital, director of the cancer center at the Franklin Square Medical Center in Baltimore, and clinical professor of medicine at both the Lombardi Cancer Center, in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He also was previously an associate professor at Emory University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He reached the rank of Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was also active in the Gynecologic Oncology Group for many years, serving at various times as chairman of the developmental therapeutics committee, co-chairman of the ovarian cancer committee and chairman of the ancillary data committee.

McGuire earned both an M.D. and an M.S. in anatomy and cell biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He served a residency and internship at Yale-New Haven Medical Center and was a clinical associate at the National Cancer Institute. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Emory University.

Written by: Jenny Owen