Shumei Kato, MD

Shumei Kato, MD, is a board-certified medical oncologist who specializes in treating rare cancers and gastrointestinal tumors. He uses numerous forms of therapy such as chemotherapy, biological therapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy to offer the best possible treatment options for his patients. Dr. Kato has a special interest in targeted molecular therapy and his approach to care emphasizes personalized medicine and experimental therapeutics.

As an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Kato instructs medical students, residents and fellows. His research interests include clinical trials and the design of new, more effective drugs for individualized therapy.

Dr. Kato has coauthored peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in Nature Cell Biology and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, among others.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Kato was an assistant professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Dr. Kato completed a fellowship in investigational cancer therapeutics at MD Anderson Cancer Center, a fellowship in hematology-oncology, and a fellowship in pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He completed his residency training at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, Japan and at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, in New York. Dr. Kato earned his medical degree from Nippon Medical School. He is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.

He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research.