Heather Cheng MD, PhD

Dr. Heather Cheng studies the inherited genetics of prostate cancer risk, the relationship to cancer-specific mutations and the genomics of prostate cancer (how sets of genes within a tumor behave).  As director of the Prostate Cancer Genetics Clinic at Fred Hutch, Dr. Cheng uses genetics to guide the care of prostate cancer patients, as well as their family members who may also be at high risk for developing prostate cancer. 

The clinic serves as a clinical base for genetic counseling, testing, and matching prostate cancer patients with precision oncology clinical trials and therapeutic advances, and connecting family members with opportunities for cancer prevention, and early cancer detection as related to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, Lynch syndrome and other genetic risk factors for cancer. She also designs and conducts therapeutic clinical trials, particularly for men whose cancers have mutations in genes related to DNA repair, such as BRCA2, BRCA1.