SUMMARY
Vidit Sharma, M.D., is a urologist specializing in kidney cancer surgery with a research focus on health services and artificial intelligence (AI) in urologic oncology.
Dr. Sharma has a long-standing interest in analyzing and learning from data. During medical school, he gained experience in analyzing surgical and diagnostic outcomes using institutional and national datasets. He later studied health services research methods in clinical data analysis, artificial intelligence applications, and health economic modeling.
Today his scope of research includes AI-enhanced imaging of kidney cancer, surgical outcomes, innovative prostate cancer clinical trials, and advanced imaging for bladder cancer. Dr. Sharma has studied cost-effectiveness analyses that use Markov modeling to inform therapeutic algorithms in prostate, bladder and kidney cancers. He is principal investigator of the Nephrectomy Registry in the Department of Urology at Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Sharma also is interested in education and mentors oncology fellows through the Urologic Oncology Fellowship at Mayo Clinic. He has published numerous research articles and has collaborated on editorials and book chapters.
Focus areas
- Artificial intelligence algorithms. Dr. Sharma studies the use of AI to automatically identify kidney tumors on CT scans. He also aims to improve outcomes for patients who have renal cell carcinoma with venous tumor thrombus. Using AI, Dr. Sharma hopes to detect and characterize venous tumor thrombus sooner, understand surgical risk, and predict tumor advancement into the vena cava. AI algorithms also can help determine how likely the tumor invasion into the vena cava is to grow and respond to treatment.
- Renal tumor differentiation. Dr. Sharma is a co-principal investigator on a study that aims to differentiate benign from malignant renal tumors using imaging and liquid biopsy algorithms. This work can help potentially avoid unnecessary procedures in patients with benign and less aggressive tumors.
- Bladder cancer staging. Dr. Sharma uses advanced imaging methodologies and targeted core biopsies to characterize the depth of tumor invasion into the bladder. How deeply a tumor invades the bladder wall is a key driver of how aggressive the cancer is. The current standard of care has a low accuracy in determining the depth of invasion. More accurately separating patients with muscle invasive tumors from those without muscle invasion can improve treatment decisions. Patients with more aggressive tumors can get treatment earlier while patients with less aggressive tumors can avoid unnecessary overtreatment.
- Prostate cancer. Dr. Sharma is the principal investigator of a study on prostate cancer. The study compares two groups of patients. One group has biochemical recurrence and negative imaging and undergoes salvage radiation. The other group is undergoing surveillance and delayed radiation based on positive imaging.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Sharma's research can help patients with urologic cancers. Determining which kidney tumors are cancerous and which aren't may help spare patients from unnecessary procedures. His work with AI algorithms can lead to earlier identification of renal cell carcinoma with venous tumor thrombus to aid treatment decisions. Dr. Sharma's work in bladder cancer also can aid treatment choices by characterizing how aggressive tumors are.
Professional highlights
- Mayo Clinic:
- Associate program director, Urologic Oncology Fellowship (Minnesota), 2024-present.
- First place, Segura Award, Resident Manuscript Contest, 2019.
- Mayo Clinic Scholar, Future Faculty Appointment Recognition, 2019.
- Best Reviewer Award, Journal of Urology, 2023.
- American Urological Association:
- Research Scholar Award, AUA Urology Care Foundation, 2024.
- Best Poster, National Meeting, 2023.
- Early Career Investigator Showcase Nominee, North Central Section, 2022.
- Best Abstract in Bladder Cancer, North Central Section, 2020.
- Genitourinary Cancers Symposium Merit Awards, Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation, American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2021.
- Top 6 Abstracts, Young Urologic Oncologists Meeting, Society of Urologic Oncology, 2020.
- Urology Student of the Year Award, Feinberg School of Medicine, 2014.