Diane Simeone, MD
Cancer Center Director
Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health
Diane Simeone, MD, is the director of Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. She oversees cancer strategy at UCSD Health and provides the strategic and intellectual direction for the center’s research programs, administrative structure, and multidisciplinary cancer clinical care. She also serves as the principal investigator for the Cancer Center’s support grant sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Dr. Simeone partners with academic and clinical leaders to guide cancer research and care and provides counsel to campus and university-level committees. She manages day-to-day operations, including scientific, education, and clinical programs.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Simeone served as the director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center and was the associate director of translational research at Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone Health. She is an internationally renowned pancreatic surgeon and researcher with a long-standing career focused on treating pancreatic cancer. Throughout her career, Dr. Simeone has driven innovation in cancer care by building a continuum between scientific discovery and new cancer detection and treatment approaches. She has published more than 230 studies in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Cell, Cancer Cell, Nature Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Simeone served as the chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network’s scientific and medical advisory board and is a past president of the American Pancreatic Association and Society of University Surgeons. She is an elected National Academy of Medicine member and has served on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pancreatic Cancer Task Force. Dr. Simeone is a member of the NCI Cancer Centers Study Section, which reviews comprehensive cancer centers across the United States. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
She developed and currently serves as the Chair of the Executive Committee of IMPACT PANC, a national adaptive seamless Phase 2/3 clinical trials platform focused on next-generation therapeutics for people with pancreatic cancer. She is also the founder of the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium, an international consortium established to drive the early detection of pancreatic cancer, with a goal of moving the needle from a current 13% survival to 50% in the next 10 years. Sixty centers participate in this effort worldwide.
Dr. Simeone completed her residency at the University of Michigan and earned her medical degree at Duke University. She is thrilled to lead Moores Cancer into its next era in innovation and discovery to drive new therapies and early detection approaches for patients.
