Peter R. Carroll, MD, MPH

Professor and Chair, Department of Urology

Education

BA, 1974, University of California, Berkeley, CA, Zoology

MD, 1979, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, Medicine

Residency, 1981, University of California, San Francisco, CA, Surgery

Residency, 1984, University of California, San Francisco, CA, Urology

MPH, 2008, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Biography

Dr. Peter Carroll, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Urology, received his undergraduate training at the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating with honors from Georgetown University School of Medicine, he came to UCSF for his general surgery training and urology residency. He completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before joining the faculty of the UCSF Department of Urology in 1986. Dr. Carroll, who holds the Ken and Donna Derr-Chevron Distinguished Professorship in Urology, added an MPH to his academic credentials in 2008.

Dr. Carroll organized the Urologic Oncology Service, one of the most active multidisciplinary programs at UCSF. In 1996, he assumed the chair of the UCSF Department of Urology, consistently ranked as one of the top urology departments in the country by U.S. News and World Report. He holds the Ken and Donna Derr-Chevron Distinguished Professorship, and he has served as surgeon-in-chief of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center from 2003 through April of 2007. In September 2006, Dr. Carroll became the Director of Strategic Planning and Clinical Services of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean, School of Medicine. In May 2008, Dr. Carroll earned his MPH from UC Berkeley.

Dr. Carroll has authored or co-authored over 500 publications. He is an active member of numerous professional medical societies. He is now Past President of the American Board of Urology (2006-2008). He is currently principal or co-investigator on numerous scientific studies. His major professional interests are the study and management of urologic cancers, innovative methods of urinary tract reconstruction, health services research, health policy and the impact of cancer detection and treatment on quality of life.

Dr. Carroll was awarded the 2010 Eugene Fuller Triennial Prostate Award and the SUO Medal from the AUA and SUO, respectively.

Clinical Interests

Dr. Carroll’s commitment to compassionate and innovative care spans benign to oncologic urology, with a focus on cancer. As a medical educator, he fosters an environment where clinical expertise is recruited and nurtured.

Dr. Carroll is committed to reducing the burden of prostate cancer treatment– physical, psychological, and monetary. He pioneered and remains a vocal advocate for standardizing an active surveillance regimen in patients with low-volume, early stage prostate cancer. Active surveillance carefully determines which patients can safely postpone radical treatment while still maintaining an acceptably low risk of cancer progression. At the same time, by improving early prognostic capabilities, Dr. Carroll strives to identify which men may benefit from more aggressive early therapies.

Dr. Carroll also demonstrates his concern for patients’ quality of life in the operating room. His drive to perfect nerve-sparing prostatectomy, continent forms of urinary diversion among others has led to many technical innovations.

Research Interests

Dr. Carroll has assembled a team of prominent investigators in the basic, population, and clinical sciences who are dedicated to rapidly translating research findings into clinical care. Under Dr. Carroll’s leadership, the department manages over $7.7 million in research grants that fund studies ranging from harnessing the power of data to improve urologic health to cancer induction and progression and standards of care.

Urologic oncology is a longstanding passion for Dr. Carroll. His research interests in this area include the development of biomarkers to help predict risk for all the major urologic cancers, and outcomes research that aims to improve survival and quality of life for cancer survivors.

Realizing that data is most relevant when larger patterns can be identified, Dr. Carroll has been instrumental in the creation of several patient study groups (cohorts). These including CaPSURE, which he founded in 1995 and which has since enrolled more than 14,000 patients across the United States, and the Prostate cancer Active Surveillance Study (PASS), a multi-institutional cohort supported by the Canary Foundation.

Dr. Carroll also established the UCSF Department of Urology’s comprehensive Tissue Core – a biobank of blood, urine and residual prostate, bladder and renal tissues from more than 6,000 consenting patients. The department also initiated and manages the Urologic Oncology Database, which records health information for research purposes and to document outcomes of care.

View my research publications