Renato G. Martins, MD, MPH
27 Years of Experience
Top Doctor
The Top Doctor award is a peer-nominated award for providers who give exceptional care.
Medical Director, Thoracic, Head and Neck Oncology
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Professor
University of Washington School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
Medical Director, Outpatient General Oncology and Hematology-Oncology
UW Medicine
UW Medicine
Member, Clinical Research Division
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Clinical expertise
Thoracic, head and neck cancers, lung cancers
Thoracic, head and neck cancers, lung cancers
Located at
“I’m 100% committed to providing tomorrow’s treatments, today. I don’t treat cancer; I treat patients and their families — the same way I like to be treated.”
—
Dr. Martins
Why did you choose to treat diseases like lung cancers?
I’ve always known lung diseases impact patients and their families in profound ways, because my own father had cancer. Also, both he and my grandfather were pulmonologists specializing in treating respiratory diseases. In my challenging yet focused work with lung, head and neck cancers (from Rio de Janeiro to Seattle), I’ve dedicated myself to compassionate care and to advancing treatments that reduce the devastating impact of these diseases. When I completed my early training, I knew every two-year survivor of lung cancer by name — because there were so few. Today, because of SCCA’s advanced research and treatments, I’m seeing five-year survival for patients with advanced cancer. Things have changed dramatically.
Specialties and clinical expertise
The branch of medicine a provider practices and their areas of focus
Medical Oncology
Medical Oncology
Head and neck cancer
Though SCCA offers the best cancer treatment available, I feel we can do even better. Through clinical research, we can advance treatments even further to improve our patients’ quality of life and help create more survivors of head and neck cancers. That's why my research is focused on immunotherapy, targeted therapies and designing clinical trials for head and thoracic cancers. I’ve contributed to over 80 publications and authored clinical trials that led to new therapies being used up to 73 months before FDA approval.
Lung cancer
Today is a completely different medical landscape than just five years ago. The difference in a huge part is due to SCCA being at the forefront of developing cellular immunotherapies and the new therapies available. Our treatments administer cancer-fighting immune cells in combination with drugs that stimulate the immune system. For some lung cancer patients, a checkpoint inhibitor is now the preferred first-line therapy — before chemotherapy — to prevent cancer from blocking your body’s immune response.
Diseases treated
Medullary Thyroid Cancer
What is your approach to treatment?
Caring for you as my patient includes listening deeply. I’m here to attend to your unique needs as well as your family's. At SCCA, you’ll receive the very best possible care, because our highly specialized teams focus on developing new advances in immunotherapy to offer patients new hope. You literally have access to tomorrow’s treatments, today. My goal is to increase the number of cancer patients that we’re able to cure. When a cancer is not curable, we diligently focus all our accumulated knowledge and experience on getting your disease under control so you can return to doing things you enjoy and living a productive life with a chronic health problem that is manageable.
“Dr. Martins is a leader in his field and as such, brings that knowledge to your treatment plan. He cares about the entire person, not just your cancer impacts and treatment. Dr. Martins shows compassion and communicates in lay terms to keep you abreast and informed.”
— Sunshine Pegues
| Dr. Martins’ patient
“He gave me the feeling that I would be in the best hands of anyone I had ever met.”
— Randall Broad
| Dr. Martins’ patient
“After all these years, we have a great relationship. He is very warm. And when I had my recurrence I really felt how much he cared.”
— Cecilia Izzo
| Dr. Martins’ patient
“Dr. Martins is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable medical oncologists in the country. He is smart and knows all of the options for patients with lung or head and neck cancer, but more importantly he is sensitive to patient needs and personalizing treatment for individual patients. He is the person I would want to be my doctor if I had cancer.”
— Douglas Wood, MD, FACS, FRCSEd
Medical Degree
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Residency
Gundersen Clinic, Internal Medicine
Gundersen Clinic, Internal Medicine
Fellowship
Massachusetts General, Harvard Medical School, Hematology-Oncology
Massachusetts General, Harvard Medical School, Hematology-Oncology
Board Certification
Medical Oncology, 1998, American Board of Internal Medicine
Medical Oncology, 1998, American Board of Internal Medicine
Other
MPH, Harvard University; Internship, Carney Hospital
MPH, Harvard University; Internship, Carney Hospital
Languages
English, Portuguese, Spanish
Your care team
At SCCA, you receive care from a team of providers with extensive experience in your disease. Your team includes doctors, a team coordinator, a registered nurse, an advanced practice provider and others, based on your needs. You also have access to experts like nutritionists, social workers, acupuncturists, psychiatrists and more who specialize in supporting people with cancer or blood disorders.
Registered nurse (RN)
Your nurse manages your care alongside your physician and assists with care procedures and
treatments.
Team coordinator (TC)
Your team coordinator works closely with you and your physician and serves as your scheduler.
Clinical trials
We make promising new treatments available to you through studies called clinical trials led by SCCA doctors. Many of these trials at SCCA have led to FDA-approved treatments and have improved standards of care globally. Together, you and your doctor can decide if a study is right for you.
A Phase I/Ib Study of NIZ985 in Combination With PDR001 in Adults With Metastatic Cancers
Study No:
NCT02452268
Phase:
Phase I
Study of LYC-55716 With Pembrolizumab in Adult Subjects With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Study No:
NCT03396497
Phase:
Phase I
A Phase 1 Trial of a Novel XPO1 Inhibitor in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors
Study No:
NCT02667873
Phase:
Phase I
Publications
Many of our SCCA physicians conduct ongoing research to improve standards of patient care. Their work is evaluated by other physicians and selected for publication to the United States National Library of Medicine, the largest medical library in the world. See scientific papers this SCCA provider has written.
Long term follow-up of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) investigating early positron emission tomography (PET) scan as a predictor of outcome.
24-Month Overall Survival from KEYNOTE-021 Cohort G: Pemetrexed and Carboplatin with or without Pembrolizumab as First-Line Therapy for Advanced Nonsquamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.