Dr. Tracy M. Downs is a urologic surgeon and fellowship-trained specialist in urologic oncology. He cares for patients who have all types of cancers of the genitourinary tract, including tumors of the kidneys, ureters, bladder, prostate, testis, and penis.
As a urologic surgeon, Dr. Downs performs all standard urologic procedures as well as specialized surgeries for urologic cancers. These include reconstructive urinary diversions and neobladders following radical cystectomy, robotic prostatectomy, cryosurgery, partial nephrectomy and minimally invasive surgery for kidney tumors.
In his research at UCSD, Dr. Downs focuses on several different aspects of urologic cancer, from the causes of cancer to its impact on a patient’s personal and social life. He is developing a prostate cancer clinical database to record in-depth information about individual cases of genitourinary cancer. This database will make it possible to analyze many different factors to help determine what causes cancer, how it develops, and how it affects the patient’s life. Dr. Downs also investigates the use of radioisotope studies to help improve the early detection of bone metastasis.
During his oncology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Downs studied gene expression in tissue obtained at the time of diagnostic prostate biopsy. Here at UCSD, he participates in the Moores Cancer Center Translational Oncology Program and collaborates on studies involving PTHrp and gene expression of prostate cancer. He also studies health-related quality of life in prostate cancer patients using the longitudinal prostate cancer disease registry (CaPSURE).
Dr. Downs has received over a dozen awards and honors, including the First Place award in the R. Frank Jones National Medical Association Resident/Fellow Urology Symposium in 2002. He has contributed chapters to numerous oncology textbooks and has been awarded a number of grants for his studies in urologic oncology.
Dr. Downs speaks both English and Spanish.
For details of Dr. Downs’s experience, education and training, as well as a list of his publications, please click on the Curriculum Vitae link under “Online Info” below.