Robert Dillman's Biography

Robert Dillman, Executive Medical Director, Hoag Institute for Research and Education

Robert O. Dillman, M.D., is the Grace E. Hoag Endowed Chair and Executive Medical Director of the Hoag Institute for Research and Education for the Hoag Hospital system in Newport Beach and Irvine, CA, and clinical Professor Medicine at the University of California Irvine (UCI). He earned a BA from Stanford and MD from Baylor College of Medicine, then did post graduate residency training at Baylor, followed by fellowship training at UC San Diego. He is board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology. From 1989-2011 he was the Medical and Scientific Director for the Hoag Cancer Center where he directed a translational research laboratory focused on bench-to-bedside patient-specific cell therapies, and from 2008-2011 was the Executive Medical Director of the Hoag Family Cancer Institute. He served as chair of the Cancer Biotherapy Research Group (1990-1999), President of the Orange County American Cancer society (1991-1993), President of the Inter-American Society for Chemotherapy (1997-1999) and President of the International Society for the Biological Therapy of Cancer (2000-2002). He has authored or co-authored more than 300 medical publications and delivered more than 800 lectures throughout the U.S. and 10 foreign countries. He is recognized internationally for his work in lung cancer, lymphoma, CLL, melanoma, and renal cell cancer, as well as cancer immunotherapy, including monoclonal antibodies, IL-2, adoptive cell therapies, and cancer vaccines. He has chaired or co-chaired 15 national/international educational and scientific symposia. In 1992 he was the first physician in Orange County, CA to be selected as one of the Best Doctors in America in hematology and/or oncology, and has been so-named in every edition from 1992-2012. He also has been named a “Top Doctor,” “Top Physician,” “Best Doctor,” and “Physician of Excellence” in Orange County and southern California. In 2006 he was named “Orange County Physician of the Year,” by the Orange County Medical Association.