Dr. Colin Paul Spears, MD

Expert Publications

• Mutagenicity studies of methyl-tert-butylether using the Ames tester strain TA102.
• Biochemical determinants of tumor sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil: ultrasensitive methods for the determination of 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate, 2'-deoxyuridylate, and thymidylate synthetase.
• Biochemical determinants of tumor sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil: ultrasensitive methods for the determination of 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate, 2'-deoxyuridylate, and thymidylate synthetase.
• Effect of potassium depletion in normal males: an Apollo 15 simulation.
• Phase I and pharmacologic study of i.v. hydroxyurea infusion given with i.p. 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine and leucovorin.
• Preoperative systemic chemotherapy followed by adjuvant postoperative intraperitoneal therapy for gastric cancer: a University of Southern California pilot program.
• Altered gene expression of folate enzymes in adjacent mucosa is associated with outcome of colorectal cancer patients.
• Biological modification of protracted infusion of 5-fluorouracil with weekly leucovorin. A dose seeking clinical trial for patients with disseminated gastrointestinal cancers.
• Structure-activity studies on organoselenium alkylating agents.
• Phenyl selenones: alkyl transfer by selenium-carbon bond cleavage.
• Synthesis and biological activities of novel 5-(2-acylethynyl)uracils.
• 5-Fluorouracil plus leucovorin as adjuvant treatment of an experimental liver tumor in rats.
• Folinic acid modulation of fluorouracil: tissue kinetics of bolus administration.
• Effect of dipyridamole on fluorodeoxyuridine cytotoxicity in vitro and in cancer patients.
• Assay and time course of 5-fluorouracil incorporation into RNA of L1210/0 ascites cells in vivo.

Media Releases

Get to know Hematologist-Oncologist Dr. Colin Paul Spears, who serves patients in California. 

An established hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Spears is the CEO & Founder of Fibonacci Phyllotaxis Inc. dba Fibons in Sacramento, California. He served as Chairman of the Cancer Committee at Mercy General Hospital – Cancer Center 2004-2016. He joined Sierra Hematology & Oncology in 2001, retiring in 2017. He led the MGH Cancer Committee through three Joint Commission AJCC/ACOS approvals.

Among his academic titles, he was Professor of Medical Oncology at California Northstate University College of Medicine, emeritus after 2017 .

Back in 1966, Dr. Spears graduated with Honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry-Biology at Queens College, City University of New York. He then went on to earn his medical degree from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn.

From 1970 until 1971, he performed his internship with the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco. He then served as a NASA research associate in cardiology with the USPHS from 1971 until 1973 in physiology studies of prolonged bedrest as an analog of weightlessness in space.

Dr. Spears took a residency in internal medicine at LAC-USC Medical Center in 1974. This was followed by NIH NCI Training Fellowships ending 1976 at the USC Comprehensive Cancer Center. This was followed by fellowship in medical oncology-hematology in 1976-1978 at the LAC-USC/MC, and a fellowship in hematology at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles in 1984. In the interim, he was a Research Scholar at the USC-CCC with Prof. Charles Heidelberger 1978-1983, winning NIH NCI RO1 cancer research awards.  He joined the USC-CCC faculty for the next 25 years, which included oncology-hematology  practice at the Norris Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles and the Huntington Hospital Cancer Center in Pasadena.

The doctor’s areas of research include breast and colon cancer biopsy pharmacodynamics which he pioneered in 1980, resulting in advanced trials of CoFactor to enhance fluorouracil therapy. His work in discrete mathematics is cited in Mathematica.com (Wolfram MathWorld) for the Generalized Fibonacci Numbers. This led to invention of  sequential slide video microscopy of a Cotula species in study of asymmetric binary division growth models.. He invented and now has made available interconvertible volume and area doubling rulers for measuring tumor growth and response to treatment. And he has contributed to the field of alkylating agent kinetic classification of  nucleophilic selectivities, ranging from low-mutagenic to high-therapeutic. Further details of his work and publications are given at www.cpspears.com. Dr. Spears was the Senior Research Physician at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis in 2000, accelerating FDA approval of pemetrexed (Alimta) in lung cancer by addition of folate/B-vitamins.

Dr. Spears is board-certified in medical oncology and internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). The ABIM is a physician-led, non-profit, independent evaluation organization driven by doctors who want to achieve higher standards for better care in a rapidly changing world.

Hematology is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. A hematologist-oncologist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of cancer, malignant blood diseases.

Among Dr. Spears’ various accolades include Patients’ Choice Award (2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008) and Patients’ Choice 5th Anniversary Award (2012). He was chosen as  Consultant of the year by the Dignity Health Family Practice Residency program 2003, 2008 and 2009.

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