OncoAssist Advisory Board

Alex A. Adjei, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Adjei is a distinguished national leader in translational research, drug development and thoracic oncology. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Ghana Medical School in Legon, and his doctorate degree in pharmacology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Dr. Adjei is an active member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Adjei has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters. He is a Senior Editor of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Associate Editor of the American Journal of Clinical Oncology and Current Drug Targets; and a member of the editorial boards for Investigational New Drugs, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology, Clinical Lung Cancer, Medicinal Chemistry Reviews and Update on Cancer Therapeutics.

Laurence Baker, D.O.

An expert in sarcoma and design of clinical trials for new sarcoma therapies, Dr. Baker is Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Division of Hematology/Oncology,  at the University of Michigan Medical School.  Dr. Baker was the Director of the Meyer L. Prentis Comprehensive Cancer Center of Metropolitan Detroit in 1987 till 1994 upon his recruitment to the University of Michigan. He served as the Deputy Director and Director for Clinical Research at the University of Michigan until May, 2004. Dr. Baker brings to bear 30 years’ experience in the treatment of sarcoma, and is active as Chairman of the Southwest Oncology Group, the largest cancer clinical trials organization in the world. He is also the Executive Director of Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC), a not-for-profit consortium which advocates for the conduct of clinical trials studying new treatment for sarcoma. Dr. Baker is a scientific consultant to the National Cancer Institute and has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature.

Paul A. Bunn, Jr., M.D.

Paul A. Bunn, Jr., M.D. joined the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1984 as Professor of Medicine, Medical Oncology and as the Chair of the Division of Medical Oncology. Since 1986, he has held the additional post of Director of the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Bunn is an internationally recognized oncologist with notable professional distinctions including, Past President of ASCO, IASLC, and AACI, as well as serving as chairman of the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee. In addition to his clinical duties, he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and over 90 book chapters in his area of concentration, lung cancer. As principal investigator, he has provided specific elucidation of the etiology, natural history, and molecular markers important for diagnosis, prognosis, and optimization of therapeutic choice to tailor personalized care. These findings have carried over to the direction of numerous clinical trials and the administration of the SPORE translational research grant in lung cancer.

Bruce Cheson, M.D.

Dr. Cheson is a recognized leader and expert in the field of lymphoma and other hematological malignancies. His clinical interests focus on the development and evaluation of new therapeutic approaches for lymphoma and CLL. Dr. Cheson has authored over 300 medical publications and abstracts and has contributed to over 40 textbooks. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Oncology, and an Editor in Chief of Clinical Lymphoma. Dr. Cheson is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He was also Editor of the American College of Physicians' Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program for Oncology. Dr. Cheson received his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine.

Neal P. Dunn, M.D.

A distinguished urologist, Dr. Dunn is the President and Managing Partner of the Panama City Urological Center.  After completing his medical degree at George Washington University, he completed his training in Urology at Tripler Army Medical Center and at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  He has served as Attending Urologist at William Beaumont Army Medical Center.  Dr. Dunn's areas of interest include applications of lasers in urologic surgery, endourology, and the management and treatment of advanced prostate cancer.  He has served as an investigator for clinical trials and research projects in collaboration with Glaxo Smith Kline, Sanofi-Synthelabro, and USAMRIID.    Dr. Dunn serves on advisory boards of several publicly traded companies and is a Fellow of numerous organizations including the American Urological Association and the American College of Surgeons.

Henry S. Friedman, M.D.

Dr. Friedman is an internationally recognized neuro-oncologist with a career-long interest in the treatment of children and adults with brain and spinal cord tumors. As Deputy Director of the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University Medical Center, he brings a unique team of specialists to the battle against brain tumors. The Brain Tumor Program at Duke was founded in 1937 and has the distinction of being one of the first in the United States; it also has the distinction of being one of the largest and most successful programs of its kind in the country. Focused specifically in the treatment and cure of brain and spinal tumors in children and adults, The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke combines the resources of a leading research organization with a commitment to the best in patient care, having treated more than 6,000 patients at the center in the last 10 years. Dr. Friedman additionally holds appointments as Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Professor of Surgery and Medicine, and Assistant Professor of Pathology. He has written hundreds of articles on both the clinical and laboratory investigation of these neoplasms.

F. Anthony Greco, M.D.

Dr. Greco received both his undergraduate and medical degree from West Virginia University. Following his internship and residency at UCLA and WVU Medical Centers, he was a medical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He then spent 17 years on the faculty of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. From 1978-1988, Dr. Greco was Director of Medical Oncology and attained the rank of Professor of Medicine. From 1982-1988, Dr. Greco served as Director of the Vanderbilt Cancer Research and Treatment Center. He is currently the Medical Director of The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center in Nashville, TN. Dr. Greco's major interest has been clinical cancer research. He has developed or helped develop new and improved therapies for patients with several types of neoplastic diseases, including ovarian cancer, germ-cell tumors, small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and others. Cancer of unknown primary site has been his main interest for three decades. He has helped recognize several clinicopathologic subsets of more treatable patients, and helped develop several new therapeutic regimens for these and other patients with unfavorable prognostic features. Recently, he has helped to develop and validate a molecular classification which appears to provide a more precise diagnosis and therapy for many of these patients.

Shelly Gunn, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Gunn is a recognized expert in the correlation of cellular and molecular pathology to pathophysiology.  She earned her M.D., and Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). Her doctoral work focused on the detection of cryptic chromosomal abnormalities in pediatric patients with normal cytogenetics and central nervous system dysmyelination. She completed her internship and residency in Clinical Pathology and now serves as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology. While at UTHSCSA, Dr. Gunn was distinguished as the recipient of the Association for Molecular Pathology's Young Investigator Award for outstanding research, and the Klein Award for the "most outstanding report illustrating the correlation of clinical medicine, pathology, and pathophysiology." She has published papers and abstracts related to array-based comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) and has been a featured speaker at various scientific meetings and symposia. Her current translational research interest within her area of expertise is the development of array CGH-based clinical assays for scanning tumor genomes in hematological malignancies.

Roy S. Herbst, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Herbst is a leader in the field of lung cancer. His research focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancers, and his research program is focused on the biology and therapy of lung cancer metastasis. He has been a pioneer in the development of an orthotopic model for non-small cell lung cancer, which has facilitated the evaluation of targeted molecular therapies in combination with radiation and chemotherapies. Dr. Herbst has developed a clinical/translational research program to test new therapies preclinically and rapidly introduce them to the clinic using surrogate endpoints of tissue biopsy and imaging studies. Dr. Herbst received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from The Rockefeller University.

Manuel Hidalgo, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Hidalgo is a world renowned leader in the clinical management of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Hidalgo received his medical degree from the University of Navarra Medical School in Pamplona, Spain, and his doctorate degree from the University of Autonoma in Madrid, Spain. He began his career as a clinical research fellow at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he participated as an EORTC/NCI Exchange Fellow and an AACR Young Investigator Fellow in Clinical Research. He worked as both an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center and as a clinical investigator at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center. He obtained the ASCO Career Development Award in 2001.

Thomas Hutson, D.O., Pharm.D.

Thomas E Hutson is Director of Genito-urinary (GU) Oncology for Texas Oncology at the Baylor University Medical Center, Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, Texas, and Co-Chair of GU Research for US Oncology. Dr Hutson specialises in GU oncology, with a research focus in renal cell carcinoma, bladder cancer and prostate cancer. Dr. Hutson graduated with honors from Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1997 and his Pharm.D. with high distinction from Ohio Northern University. He trained at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Internal Medicine, followed by a fellowship in Experimental Therapeutics and completing a clinical fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology; during his training at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, he was the recipient of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Young Investigators Award in 2002. Among his professional associations, he is a member of the American Medical Association, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American College of Physicians. His research in Genitourinary Cancers has resulted in several chapters in medical textbooks on Prostate Cancer and Renal Cell Carcinoma. He is a member of the Medical Advisory Board for the Kidney Cancer Association.

Wells Messersmith, M.D.

Dr. Messersmith is the Director of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology as well as an active participant in the Drug Development Program at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. He trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School and did his Medical Oncology / Drug Development Fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where he was on the faculty from 2004-2007 as Assistant Professor in the GI Oncology and Drug Development programs. Dr. Messersmith is focused on clinical and translational cancer research as Director of the Gastrointestinal (GI) Medical Oncology Program. This comprehensive program includes multi-disciplinary GI cancer clinics, tumor boards, and research endeavors. Dr. Messersmith holds several NIH grants and is the principal investigator on numerous national and local therapeutic trials. He is an active investigator in the developmental therapeutics laboratory, working on novel targeted therapies as well as correlative studies for use on human tissue samples.

Joyce O'Shaughnessy, M.D.

Dr. O'Shaughnessy is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer. She received her M.D. from Yale University Medical School and completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by her fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. O'Shaughnessy served as Special Assistant to the National Cancer Institute director and coordinated the development of new cancer drug approval guidelines for the National Cancer Institute and the Food and Drug Administration. She also served as a Senior Investigator in the Medical Breast Cancer Section of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. O'Shaughnessy is Associate Editor of Clinical Breast Cancer and serves on the editorial board of Clinical Cancer Research as well as the Journal of Supportive Cancer Care. Her research interests focus on the development of new treatments for pre-cancerous conditions of the breast.

Alan Venook, M.D.

A distinguished and renowned expert in colorectal and liver cancers, Dr. Venook leads the Gastrointestinal Oncology clinical program at UCSF.  He also holds joint appointments as professor of clinical medicine at UCSF and as director of the UCSF Cancer Center Clinical Research Office.  His areas of interest focus on treating liver tumors with directed approaches, including infusional chemotherapy or biological agents. Dr. Venook earned a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in 1976 and graduated from the UCSF School of Medicine in 1980. He trained in internal medicine at the University of California, Davis and in hematology and oncology at UCSF. He has been on the medical staff at UCSF since 1988.

Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D.

Dr. Von Hoff is a clinical oncologist and oncology drug developer who has devoted his career to translational medicine. He has conducted national clinical trials with more than 200 new antineoplastic and biologic agents. Dr. Von Hoff served on President Bush's National Cancer Advisory Board and has served on the FDA's Oncology Advisory Committee. He is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Von Hoff has also served as editor of numerous scientific publications. He is the founder and Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs- The Journal of New Anticancer Agents as well as the current Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Previously he was the associate editor of Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Von Hoff has also served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Medicine, Anticancer Drugs, Oncology, Annals of Oncology, and nine other scientific journals. Dr. Von Hoff received his M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

William Westra, M.D.

A distinguished expert in the study of tumors of the head and neck, including tumors of the thyroid, salivary glands, and the upper respiratory tract, Dr. Westra is Associate Professor of Pathology, Director, Head and Neck Pathology, and Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution.  His area of focus lies in the application of molecular genetic techniques to the early detection of head and neck cancers and the use of such modalities to track the molecular-genetic progression of head and neck cancer and thyroid neoplasia.  He is the co-author, Surgical Pathology Dissection, an editor of The Archives of Otolaryngology , and author of numerous peer-reviewed articles.  Dr. Westra is also the Director of the Pathology Core Facility for the NIH funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in Cancer of the Head and Neck.