Center Profile: Christopher Amling, M.D.

Web Extra! Hear Dr. Amling describe the urology program's progress and growth.

Crossroads salutes Christopher Amling, M.D., F.A.C.S., UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center senior scientist and director of the UAB Division of Urology. Dr. Amling specializes in the research and treatment of urologic cancers, with a particular interest in prostate cancer. A former captain in the United States Navy Medical Corps, he is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his work.

Christopher Amling, M.D., is no ordinary retiree. Following a 20-year career in the U.S. Navy, he moved across the country to begin a new career at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. In his short time here, Dr. Amling has made significant strides toward his goal of elevating UAB's Division of Urology to one of the top 10 of its kind nationally.  

Serving His Country
Growing up in Oregon, Dr. Amling never planned on a career in medicine or the military. “Initially I wanted to be an athletic trainer, because I was very involved in athletics,” he recalls. “I was eventually motivated to become a physician by an uncle who was a doctor.”

After receiving his bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in 1981, Dr. Amling enrolled in medical school on a military scholarship. Not only did the military provide him with the opportunity to serve his country—something he had always wanted to do—but it also opened a lot of doors in the field of medicine.

Once he graduated, Dr. Amling was required to “repay” the military by serving in the Navy for four years. He jumped at the chance to pursue an interest in aviation. “Top Gun was popular at the time, and I wanted to fly jets,” he says with a laugh.

Following a one-year internship in general surgery at California’s Oakland Naval Hospital, Dr. Amling went to the Naval Flight Surgery Training Program in Pensacola, Florida. From there, he was stationed for three years in Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, with a U.S. Marine Corps air group, serving as a flight surgeon. “It was satisfying for me to be in that environment, because I've always had respect for the military and what they do,” he says. “To hear stories from military retirees who had actually lived through Pearl Harbor—it was very gratifying to care for people like that.”

His time in Hawaii also proved to be a useful learning experience. “In the military, you're a general-practice doctor before you go into subspecialty training because that's what they need the most,” says Dr. Amling. “I got to see medicine from the primary care side of things, working with people who had the off-the-street kinds of problems such as colds and sore throats. That ultimately made me a better subspecialist because I had the opportunity to be on the front lines with the common, everyday complaints that patients have.”  

An Interest in Cancer Emerges
After fulfilling his four years with the Navy, Dr. Amling chose to stay with the military, and the Navy funded his urology residency at Duke University Medical Center.

Though Dr. Amling had decided on a surgical career in medical school, he originally settled on orthopedics as a subspecialty because of his interest in athletics. “The more I got involved in orthopedics, however, the more I felt that it wasn't right for me,” he says. Then one of his mentors introduced him to urology. “It’s a diverse specialty offering a great combination of surgical treatments,” Dr. Amling says. “I found that most urologists are really happy with what they do, and that was important to me.”

As he progressed through his residency, Dr. Amling became more interested in urologic malignancies, such as prostate, kidney and bladder cancers. “I liked performing the surgeries for these cancers and being able to fix those problems,” he says. “It's a surgical mentality; someone comes in with cancer, and you can make it go away. There's a lot of satisfaction in that.”

Six years at Duke inspired Dr. Amling to teach and explore medicine’s academic side, and he went to the Mayo Clinic for a fellowship in urologic oncology. After a year of a “fantastic training experience,” he accepted a position at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego in 1997.

Dr. Amling would eventually become chair of that medical center's department of urology. Much of his work in San Diego involved prostate cancer research; in particular, he studied national databases to identify outcomes research that could improve diagnosis and treatment of the disease. He also led the department’s residency training program, which became a highlight of his job. “It's a passion of mine to pass on what we know,” he says. “Being able to inspire other physicians to take on the challenge of seeking knowledge excites me.”  

Coming to UAB
After 20 years in the Navy—and a long list of accomplishments, including rising to the rank of captain—Dr. Amling decided it was time to retire. He began looking for positions at academic institutions across the country, including UAB.

“I found that UAB offered the best opportunity, resources and infrastructure to develop one of the country’s top 10 urology programs,” he says. “That challenge attracted me here.”

Since joining the Cancer Center in 2005, Dr. Amling has met that challenge head on, hiring new faculty and establishing a program in robotic surgery, part of a growing trend in cancer treatment. Under his leadership, UAB was among the first institutions in Alabama to offer the da Vinci® surgical robot to prostate cancer patients, and because of its success, the robot is now used to treat several different cancers. Dr. Amling has now begun to perform robotic surgery for bladder cancer, making UAB the first center in Alabama and the Deep South to perform this procedure.

“Our number-one priority when I came to UAB was to grow a respected clinical program that would offer patients the opportunity to receive state-of-the-art cancer care from subspecialists with fellowship training,” he says. “I think we've done that and are only continuing to improve.”

Dr. Amling also has expanded the Cancer Center's research enterprise for urologic cancers, offering more clinical trials and performing new outcomes research. By adding data on each patient to a database, “we can study what we do and how to improve upon it,” he says. “We are also collecting tissue and blood samples from our patients to be used in our laboratory for investigation of new cancer markers.”  

A Satisfying Challenge
Though his schedule does not allow much free time, Dr. Amling enjoys spending it with his family, including Barbara, his wife of 24 years, and his three children, Melissa, Caroline and Thomas. He met Barbara in Oregon, and they were married during his last year of medical school. “Being in the military, I've asked my family to go here and there, and they've been very flexible,” Dr. Amling says. "I think there's a lot of value in seeing different parts of the country. Every place is a new adventure, with the opportunity to experience something and learn from it. We look back on it as a good thing.”

In acknowledging the challenges of his work, Dr. Amling also stresses its benefits. “There are a lot of sad moments in cancer, but there are a lot of situations that allow me to impact patients in a really positive way,” he says. “To go home at the end of the day and feel good about what you do is an important part of any job, whether it's medicine or anything else. It's a challenging job, but it's a satisfying one.”