Donald C. Balfour Alumni Award Recipient - 2006

Robert Houston Thompson, M.D.

The Balfour Award recognizes outstanding research by a resident of the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education whose training is in a clinical field.

Recipient: Robert Houston Thompson, M.D.

R. Houston Thompson, M.D. graduated summa cum laude from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 2001. He completed his General Surgery internship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in 2002 and is currently a resident in the Department of Urology scheduled to graduate in 2007. Dr. Thompson’s research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, and he has presented his work at national and international meetings.

Under the mentorship of Eugene D. Kwon, M.D., Dr. Thompson’s research has focused on the immunology
and immune dysfunction of malignancies, with particular emphasis on renal cell carcinoma. Dr. Thompson demonstrated that T lymphocyte coregulatory proteins can adversely influence cancer progression and patient survival. These seminal observations were the first to definitively link a tumorproduced immunomodulatory molecule with clinical cancer outcome and have sparked renewed interest in these co-regulatory proteins as both prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Dr. Thompson’s findings have led to commercial development of immunomodulatory antibodies as clinical reagents for antitumoral immunotherapy. Dr. Thompson has also pursued other areas of research under the direction of Bradley C. Leibovich, M.D., John C. Cheville, M.D., and Michael L. Blute, M.D., demonstrating that renal sinus fat invasion from kidney cancer may be the principal mechanism for metastatic dissemination. These findings have subsequently altered the surgical approach for these malignancies.

Dr. Thompson plans to join the Mayo Clinic staff in the Department of Urology in 2009 following an oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a Mayo Foundation Scholar.