Silicon Valley lawyer Roger Royse pivoted to health tech after cancer diagnosis
Members Who Inspire
Silicon Valley lawyer Roger Royse pivoted to health tech after cancer diagnosis
Roger Royse, shown here on Mount Baker in Washington, hopes to climb the Eiger in Switzerland in August. (Photo courtesy of Roger Royse)
Roger Royse, a startup and venture capital lawyer in Silicon Valley, keeps an eye on technology.
In 2022, Royse read about health care company Grail’s multicancer early detection test, which through a blood sample can screen for more than 50 different types of cancer. He prioritized his own health and knew there was some history of the disease in his family because his father had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in the early 1990s.
Royse decided to take the test, paying out of pocket since his health insurance plan didn’t cover it. An oncologist called him with the results: The test had detected signs of cancer, and he needed further testing.
“As soon as he said that, I said to him, ‘Please don’t say pancreatic,’” says Royse, who understood this type of cancer was particularly aggressive and difficult to treat. “And he says, ‘Well, unfortunately, it is pancreatic.’”
Royse followed up with an MRI, which showed a mass on his pancreas. After a biopsy, he was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer. He began treatment, which included six months of chemotherapy and surgery. Because the chemo had little effect, he also received an experimental cancer vaccine that he discovered through his network.
“I went to the biotech companies I know. I went to the VCs that invest in that space and people in my business network that might know people who have some information on biotech,” Royse says. “What I found was there are a ton of companies out there working on really effective, cool, innovative stuff.”
Royse says he has shown no evidence of disease since July. A partner in the Palo Alto, California, office of Haynes Boone, he now focuses part of his practice on supporting cancer therapy tech startups. He also helped create a community for these companies and for fellow cancer patients in other meaningful ways.
“He’s a very impressive advocate for himself and for the domain,” says Ari Akerstein, the co-founder and CEO of the CancerHacker Lab, an early-stage health tech accelerator aimed at improving cancer care. He worked with Royse to launch the company last year.
“There’s this ethos that we’re trying to build to make things better for all,” adds Akerstein, a blood cancer survivor. “He’s kind of the role model of what that could look like. He really embodies what it is that we’re trying to do for patients.”
Value of community
After his diagnosis, Royse talked to dozens of companies and researchers, read hundreds of academic papers and attended several cancer research conferences.
He feels a lot could be done for cancer patients that isn’t part of standard medical care and wants to bring more attention to new and developing therapies. He created CancerStartup.com to provide a place where cancer tech startups and potential investors could share and discuss their solutions to fighting the disease.
Roger Royse, third from the right, is the Silicon Valley advocacy chair for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. He participated in the organization’s PanCAN PurpleStride fundraising event in April 2024. (Photo courtesy of Roger Royse) Royse, a 1984 graduate of the University of North Dakota School of Law, had worked with newly formed tech startups for several decades. But after his extensive self-education in cancer and potentially groundbreaking treatments, he pivoted to representing companies in the cancer tech space.
“I’ve been hearing people say, ‘Oh, biotech is going to change the world in the next five years,’” Royse says. “And yeah, I knew that intellectually. But when it came down to my life depending on it, I developed a much different understanding of how important these technologies are and how quickly we need to move them to market.”
In August 2023, Royse discovered the Cancer Patient Lab, a nonprofit organization that connects advanced cancer patients and their caregivers to each other and to experts to help them make informed decisions about treatment. It hosts weekly discussions with oncologists, scientists and researchers; provides access to cutting-edge testing and treatment options and other resources; and offers a platform for patients to share their stories.
“I’ve gotten some really good information from talking to other patients,” Royse says. “It’s a community, and it’s a valuable community. I really believe in it. It provides a service that I’m not aware anybody else is providing.”
Royse shared his own story with Cancer Patient Lab and participated in presentations and panel discussions that are available on the website. He also became a member of Cancer Patient Lab’s board and provides pro bono services to the organization.
As a Silicon Valley lawyer, Royse brings a specific set of skills and mindset to their mission, says Brad Power, the co-founder and CEO of Cancer Patient Lab.
“A Silicon Valley lawyer lives in the world of innovation,” says Power, who also co-founded the CancerHacker Lab. “The ethic, the culture is about making things possible with technology and pushing the envelope. That fits with his personality.”
Some lawyers may not want to share that they’ve had cancer, fearing it makes them appear less capable of doing their jobs, adds Power, a lymphoma survivor. But Royse has taken the opposite approach.
“He’s going public and helping others when most people would be quiet,” Power says.
‘A better way’
Royse also advocates for changing what he perceives as wrongs in the medical system.
In his case, he met with two doctors who thought the multicancer early detection test was unnecessary and wouldn’t prescribe it for him. After he was diagnosed with cancer, he realized his health insurance wouldn’t cover some of his care. And once he exhausted his standard of care options, he wanted to try treatment that wasn’t approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
So Royse started the treatment—a neoantigen peptide vaccine—in Japan in 2023. He finished it in San Francisco the following year after the FDA approved his expanded access application. Under this program, patients with an immediately life-threatening disease can access an investigational medical product if no other options are available.
Roger Royse in the Wasatch Range in Utah. (Photo courtesy of Roger Royse)“For most patients, international travel is not an option and U.S. cancer centers are too costly,” Royse says. “I have seen cancer patients live until they ran out of money, and others die simply because they could not access expensive therapies or were never made aware of possible treatments.”
Royse receives a few calls a week from cancer patients who are interested in learning about treatment options. He tells them about his experiences and refers them to the Cancer Patient Lab and other nonprofit organizations for more help.
In November 2023, Royse testified before an FDA advisory committee, urging the agency to approve multicancer early detection tests so they could be covered by insurance plans and more accessible. He also serves as the Silicon Valley advocacy chair for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Royse, who received his LLM in taxation from the New York University School of Law and is a certified public accountant, is a longtime member of the ABA Business Law Section and Section of Taxation.
He emphasizes the importance of exercise to staying healthy, and spends his free time running, biking and swimming. He plans to climb the north face of the Eiger mountain in Switzerland in August.
In the next year, Royse also expects to participate in developing state and federal policy around cancer care.
“The way we think about cancer and cancer treatment is not optimal,” he says. “I think there’s a better way and a better way ought to be to prevent this disease from ever happening in the first place.”
Members Who Inspire is an ABA Journal series profiling exceptional ABA members. If you know members who do unique and important work, you can nominate them for this series by emailing [email protected].
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