Dr. Robert F. Asbury

Medical School: Harvard
Residency: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

From Dr. Bob Asbury’s perspective, oncology has changed very dramatically since he began practicing more than 30 years ago.

"We used to have a big percentage of our patients who had metastatic cancer, with no drugs, no ability to do anything but offer palliative care," he said. "Today, we rarely see that. We’re able to do so much more for our patients."

How will cancer care change in the future? "Someday cancer will become another chronic disease, like arthritis. You treat it with drugs, but you live with it for years and years. I think that will happen."

For now, treating patients and sharing their struggle is an incredibly rewarding experience. "We see people who have a very concrete enemy they’re fighting against. For that reason we see people at their best. They know what the enemy is, and they’re going against it with absolutely everything they’ve got. It’s our privilege to be part of that struggle."

Dr. Asbury received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his M.D. with honors from Harvard. He did his internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, a research fellowship at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and oncology training at the University of Rochester Cancer Center.

Dr. Asbury is a Clinical Professor of Oncology at the University of Rochester Cancer Center and was Co-chief at the Wasyl Pluta Cancer Center at The Genesee Hospital for fifteen years. He has served on a variety of national committees in the Gynecology Oncology Group and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. He is Board Certified in Oncology and Internal Medicine.

Much of Dr. Asbury’s research has been in the area of drug development for gynecological cancer and gastrointestinal oncology. Locally, he has served on the Boards of Park Ridge Health System, Cancer Action, Genesee Region Home Care, American Cancer Society, Rochester Blue Cross, Finger Lakes Health Systems and the Wheatland-Chili School Board. In 1988, while serving as chair of Genesee Region Home Care, Dr. Asbury founded the first Hospice of Rochester. In 2006 he chaired the campaign to build a new hospice in Greece. He has been selected to America’s Best Doctors List since its founding. He is currently the Vice-President of Interlakes Oncology and Hematology P.C. and Secretary of The Interlakes Foundation.

Dr. Asbury enjoys sailing and golf in the summer and skiing and cooking in the winter.