Roles
Genitourinary Site Disease Group Lead
GU SDD Medical Oncology Lead
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Biography
Dr. Marijo Bilusic, MD, PhD, is a board-certified medical oncologist who treats genitourinary tumors (adrenal, kidney, prostate, bladder, and testis). His current research interests focus on tumor immunology and the development of novel immunotherapy approaches for prostate cancer and other genitourinary tumors using therapeutic cancer vaccines, antibodies, immune modulators or immune checkpoint inhibitors, not only as monotherapies but in combination with other immune mediating modalities and other therapies as part of an immuno-oncology programmatic effort.
Dr. Bilusic received his M.D. degree from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in Croatia and completed his Ph.D. training at the University of Split School of Medicine in Croatia. In addition, he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in physiological genomics at the Medical College of Wisconsin's Human and Molecular Genetics Center in Milwaukee, WI. He successfully completed a clinical fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), in Bethesda, MD.
Dr. Bilusic served as an Assistant Professor Genitourinary medical oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center/Temple Health from 2012 – 2016 and then joined the NCI Genitourinary Malignancy Branch in 2016 as an Associate Research Physician (equivalent to Associate Professor). During his time at the NCI, he also served as Associate Program Director, NIH Hematology Oncology Fellowship Program from July 2016 – July 2018, and then as Program Director from July 2018 – July 2021. In 2017 Dr. Bilusic received the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Award as a member of NIH Hematology Oncology Fellowship Team for extraordinary resourcefulness and initiative. His passion for teaching and mentoring has earned multiple awards at NIH and NCI.
In July 2021, Dr. Bilusic joined Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center / University of Miami Health System as GU Medical Oncology Team Lead. He is board-certified in medical oncology, hematology, and internal medicine. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
Licensures and Certifications
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
Ars longa, vita brevis – Hippocrates.
As the previous director of the one of the most prestigious and one of the largest fellowship programs in the US, my view of the medical education guided my daily activities. Getting recruited back to the National Cancer Institute to lead the same program that I attended as a fellow several years prior was a great honor, privilege, and responsibility. My greatest professional sense of accomplishment comes from the mentoring 60+ fellows during 5 years of my service. A fellowship program director can influence the educational process in multiple ways: from curriculum development, fellows’ evaluation, mentoring and counseling, faculty development, to program development. Having a vision of the program’s goals, objectives and future is the main key for success. I like to use a healthy level of anxiety by asking questions and letting trainee struggle a bit for the answer. Then we discuss the sources used to provide the answer: clinical literature, clinical experience, or just ritual. Goals in teaching should not be limited only to the knowledge domain.
My tips for successful learning process are:
a) Set realistic expectations for trainees
b) Provide mentoring, tools, and develop skills
c) Offer guide toward intellectual and professional independence
d) Challenge the knowledge
e) Provide timely feedback
f) Build collegial relationship
g) Establish open door policy
h) Encourage peer learning
i) Develop individual learning plan
In summary, our job as faculty is to help future physicians in their professional development, and provide them tools, skills, and knowledge needed to advance the field of medicine. Hippocrates, the father of medicine and one of the greatest teachers, once wrote: while artists (doctors) die and are forgotten, art (medicine) lasts forever. -
Research Interests
Dr. Bilusic’s clinical research interests involve the translation of hypothesis-driven preclinical studies to genitourinary and phase 1 immunotherapy clinical trials in collaboration with investigators at the University of Miami, National Cancer Institute, other academic institutions, National Cancer Institute and industry. He focuses on understanding how the complex interplay between immune system and carcinogenesis affects development of genitourinary cancers and on identification of factors responsible for treatment resistance. His overall research goals focus on the design and development of novel therapeutic options such as cancer vaccines, immunocytokines, checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies using different strategies to modify the tumor microenvironment to make cancer cells susceptible to immune therapy.
Rational combination of approaches novel immune-mediating agents that can be used in combinations with standard-of-care therapies will hopefully address the underlying issues pertinent to a therapeutic immune response present within a tumor microenvironment and to explore changes in responders (especially exceptional responders) vs. non-responders to inform future studies. Building on his previous trial of bicalutamide with metformin in biochemically recurrent prostate cancer, Dr. Bilusic also studies novel agents in that space that can spare patients androgen deprivation therapy. -
Publications
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Professional Activities
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