Joshi James Alumkal, MD

Dr. Alumkal is the Wicha Family Professor of Oncology. He is the Leader of the Genitourinary Medical Oncology Section in the Hematology-Oncology Division and a Professor with tenure in the Department of Internal Medicine. He co-leads the Translational and Clinical Research Program in the Rogel Cancer Center. Dr. Alumkal’s main goal is to link laboratory and clinical scientists in order to develop more effective treatments for patients with advanced cancers, including men with prostate cancer whom he treats.

Dr. Alumkal attended the University of Texas (UT) at Austin where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Biology. He attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. He completed internal medicine residency training at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he also served as Chief Resident. He completed medical oncology training at Johns Hopkins University followed by a post-doctoral fellowship focused on cancer epigenetics at Johns Hopkins University. Subsequently, Dr. Alumkal joined Oregon Health & Science University from 2007-2019. There, Dr. Alumkal was the Co-Leader of the Prostate Cancer Section and the inaugural holder of the Wayne D. Kuni and Joan E. Kuni Foundation Endowed Chair for Prostate Cancer Research.

Dr. Alumkal is a physician-scientist who was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2019. The Alumkal Laboratory’s main emphasis is to understand how genes get turned off and on in advanced prostate cancers and how this process enables tumors to become resistant to standard treatments. The most important goals of Dr. Alumkal’s studies are to identify therapies that effectively target advanced prostate cancers and to conduct innovative clinical trials designed to validate the effectiveness of novel therapeutic agents.

In his free time, Dr. Alumkal enjoys spending time with his two children and his wife Kathleen Kemmer—who is also a medical oncologist and faculty member in the Hematology-Oncology Division at the University of Michigan—reading, running, and watching/playing soccer.

Prostate cancer

University of Michigan Health participates with most health insurance plans.

Dr. Alumkal is focused on developing a clearer understanding of what drives advanced prostate cancer so he and his team may develop more effective treatments for men with this disease.