Dr. Schoen is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University Pittsburgh. His research interests are centered on early detection and prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC). He is a principal investigator in the PLCO cancer screening trial, a randomized trial of over 154,000 individuals which evaluated flexible sigmoidoscopy. He has used PLCO data to study surveillance colonoscopy utilization and yield, interval cancers, or cancers detected shortly after endoscopic procedures, and risk of colorectal cancer among subjects with a family history of cancer. Dr Schoen is the principal investigator, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, of a multicenter randomized immunotherapy trial, evaluating a vaccine for prevention of recurrent adenomatous polyps. He is a principal investigator for the Early Detection Research Network and collaborates with scientists nationally and internationally to identify biomarkers, including circulating tumor DNA and tissue based markers, to detect and monitor cancer. He is an investigator in GECCO, the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium, a consortium studying genetic and environmental risk factors for CRC including genome wide association studies and molecular pathologic epidemiology research and modeling of CRC risk using genetic and environmental risk factors. Dr. Schoen is a co-investigator in a study evaluating colonoscopy quality and is helping to develop a natural language processing tool to evaluate and report on colonoscopy quality in a more efficient manner. In conjunction with that project, Dr. Schoen is developing a database of colonoscopy reports from the last 20 years at UPMC hospitals, for research studies on colonoscopy.
- AB, Columbia College, 1979
- MD, Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons, 1984
- MPH, University of Pittsburgh, 1994
- Residency, Internal Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1987
- Fellowship, Gastroenterology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1991
- Fellowship, General Medicine, New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center, 1988
Education & Training
Schoen RE, Pinsky PF, Weissfeld JL, Yokochi LA, ..., PLCO Project Team. Colorectal-cancer incidence and mortality with screening flexible sigmoidoscopy. N Engl J Med. 2012; 366(25): 2345-57.
Schoen RE, PinskyPF, Weissfeld JL, YOkochi LA, Church T, Laiyemo AO, Bresalier R, Hickey T, Riley T, Prorok PC. Colorectal cancers not detected by screening flexible sigmoidoscopy in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. Gastrointest Endosc. 2012; 75(3): 612-20.
Schoen, R.E., Pinsky, P.F., Weissfeld, J.L., Bresalier, R.S., Church, T., Prorok, P., Gohagan, J.K. Results of Repeat Sigmoidoscopy Three Years After a Negative Examination. The Journal of the Medical Association. 2003; 290: 41-48.
Pinsky, P.F., Schoen, R.E., Weissfeld, J.L., Church, T., Yokochi, L.A., Doria-Rose, V.P., Prorok, P. The Yield of Surveillance Colonoscopy by Adenoma History and Time to Exam. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 2009; 7: 86-92.
Schoen, R.E., Pinsky, P.F., Weissfeld, J.L., Yokochi, L.A., Reding, D.J., Hayes, R.B., Church, T., Yurgalevich, S., Doria-Rose, V.P., Hickey, T., Riley, T., Berg, C.D. Utilization of Surveillance Colonoscopy in Community Practice. Gastroenterology. 2010; 138: 73-81.
Peters, U., Jiao, S., Schumacher, F.R., Hutter, C.M., Aragaki, A.K., Baron, J.A., Berndt, S.I., Bezieau, S., Brenner, H., Butterbach, K., Caan, B.J., Campbell, P.T., Carlson, C.S., Casey, G., Chan, A.T., Chang-Claude, J., Chanock, S.J., Chen, L.S., Coetzee, G.A., Coetzee, S.G. Identification of Genetic Susceptibility Loci for Colorectal Tumors in a Genome-Wide Meta-Analysis. Gastroenterology. 2013; 144: 799-807.
Kimura, T., McKolanis, J.R., Dzubinski, L.A., Islam, K., Potter, D.M., Salazar, A.M., Schoen, R.E., Finn, O.J. MUC1 Vaccine for Individuals with Advanced Adenoma of the Colon: A Cancer Immunoprevention Feasibility Study. Cancer Prevention Research. 2013; 6: 18-26.
Sanduleanu, S., le Clercq, C.M., Dekker, E., Meijer, G.A., Rabeneck, L., Rutter, M.D., Valori, R., Young, G.P., Schoen, R.E. Definition and taxonomy of interval colorectal cancers: a proposal for standardizing nomenclature. Gut. 2014; 64(8): 1257-67.
Ladabaum, U., Schoen, R.E. Post-Polypectomy Surveillance that Would Please Goldilocks-Not Too Much, Not Too Little, but Just Right. Gastroenterology. 2016; 150(4): 791-6.
Schoen, R.E., Razzak, A., Yu, K.J., Berndt, S.I., Firl, K., Riley, T.L., Pinsky, P.F. Incidence and Mortality of Colorectal Cancer in Individuals with a Family History of Colorectal Cancer. Gastroenterology. 2015
- Past President, Pittsburgh Gut Club, 2008-present
- J. Edward Berk, MD Endowed Lecture, American Society of GI Endoscopy, 2010
- Saide Gerson Distinguished Scholar Award, U. of Pittsburgh, 2010
- Lemuel Herrera MD Memorial Lecture, Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer, 2012
- Best Doctor’s: Pittsburgh Magazine, 2012-16
- Regional Chair for the Americas, World Endoscopy Organization, 2014-present
