William J Catalona MD

William J Catalona, M.D., Professor of Urology is the Director of the Clinical Prostate Cancer Program for the Northwestern University School of Medicine.

A graduate of Yale Medical School, Dr. Catalona trained in surgery at the Yale New-Haven Hospital and the University of California San Francisco, in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute, and in urology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. 

He was the first to show that the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test could be used as a first-line screening test for prostate cancer.

He is currently conducting research in prostate cancer tumor markers and the genetics of prostate cancer.

He is an expert in performing the “nerve-sparing “radical prostatectomy, having performed more than 6,000 of these operations.

He has received the James Ewing Society Award for Cancer Research, 1972; the American Urological Associations Gold Cystoscope Award, 1986, Hugh Hampton Young Award, 1994, and Eugene Fuller Triennial Prostate Medal, 1998; The Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, 1994; the  American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, James Stockwell Barringer Medal,1999 and Edward L. Keyes Medal, 2003; Prostate Cancer Foundation, Donald S. Coffey Physician-Scientist Award, 2005; Florida Prostate Cancer Network’s, General Schwarzkopf Pioneer in Prostate Cancer Award, 2005; the Society of Urologic Oncology, Charles Huggins Medal, 2005, a National Prostate Cancer Coalition’s Golden Glove Award, 2006, the New York Academy of Medicine’s Ferdinand Valentine Medal, 2007, American Urological Association’s Ramon Guiteras Lecturer 2011, and the Society of Basic Urology Research Distinguished Service Award 2013.  

He has served on advisory boards of the American Cancer Society and the editorial boards of several medical journals, including the Journal of Urology and Urology. 

He has been principal investigator on grants from the NIH, Department of Defense, American Cancer Society, and CaP CURE (Prostate Cancer Foundation).

He is currently Principal Investigator on the Northwestern University Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Prostate Cancer and Co-Chair of the Prostate SPORE/National Cancer Institute Genetics Working Group, Principal Investigator of  the Northwestern branch of the International Consortium of Prostate Cancer Genetics (ICPCG), and consultant and collaborating investigator for Beckman Coulter, Incorporated and deCODE genetics, Inc, Nanosphere, Inc, and Ohmx, Inc. He is author of more than 500 articles, book chapters, and books.