Vinod Ravi, MD

Vinod Ravi, MD, is an Associate Professor, Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine. He is also the Clinical Director, Translational Research Accelerator Program, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, and holds a joint adjunct appointment as an Associate Professor, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer.

Dr. Ravi’s clinical practice is focused on vascular sarcomas such as angiosarcoma and epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. Dr. Ravi is also part of the angiosarcoma and leiomyosarcoma working groups at MD Anderson to efficiently utilize the current moonshot platforms to improve outcomes in these rare diseases. Over the course of the last 8 years that he has been at MD Anderson, he has conducted several Phase II and III studies in patients with sarcoma. His clinical research interests are in the development of novel therapies for angiosarcoma and other vascular tumors.

From a data science standpoint, his research focus is utilization of multi-dimensional clinical and molecular data for identification of effective molecular therapies. Dr. Ravi is interested in correlating responses to specific targeted therapies with molecular predictors to improve clinical trial efficiency and success rates. As the clinical director of TRA (Translational Research Accelerator) program, Dr. Ravi leads the implementation of big data initiative that connects molecular data on patient samples with clinical and radiological information from electronic records.

Chandrajit P. Raut, MD, M.Sc., is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Associate Surgeon in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and Surgery Director at the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). A graduate of Stanford University, Oxford University, and Harvard Medical School, he completed his general surgery residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and surgical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Raut specializes almost exclusively in the multidisciplinary care of patients with soft tissue sarcoma, including desmoid tumors. 

Dr. Raut is the Program Director of the Complex Surgical Oncology Fellowship at DFCI, BWH, and MGH and serves as the Section Editor for sarcoma in the journals Cancer and Annals of Surgical Oncology and Associate Editor for Sarcoma.

Ravin Ratan, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has a large clinical practice focusing on the treatment of patients with sarcomas and other connective tissue neoplasms including desmoid fibromatosis.  He has been the primary investigator for multiple studies focused on the treatment of desmoid tumors and sarcomas at MD Anderson.  He is a passionate educator who lectures to medical trainees at multiple institutions regarding the management of sarcoma, and facilitates their involvement in the care of patients at MD Anderson. He is also a frequent speaker at patient and caregiver education events throughout the country. 

Raphael Pollock, MD, PhD, is a professor and the Director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. He also serves as the chief of surgical services of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. 

Previously, Dr. Pollock served as the senior sarcoma surgeon at UTMDACC where he has been a member of the faculty since 1982; he is also the Director of the UTMDACC Sarcoma Research Center, an entity that includes the Sarcoma Research Laboratory, the Sarcoma Tissue Repository, and the UTMDACC Sarcoma database. The Sarcoma Research Laboratory includes faculty from six different clinical and basic science departments (described below). The Sarcoma Tissue Repository was initiated by Dr. Pollock in the early 1990s and currently consists of > 2500 clinically annotated sarcoma tissue specimens, many with autologous normal tissues. 

Dr. Pollock serves as Chair of the AJCC Sarcoma Committee, is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Sarcoma Foundation of America (SFA), the Sarcoma Alliance, the Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative, The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation, the UICC TNM Expert Advisory Panel on Sarcoma, the NCCN Sarcoma Committee, The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation, the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC) Executive Committee, and also serves as Co-Chair of the NCI Genomic Atlas Sarcoma Steering Committee. Dr. Pollock is also a member of the NIH/NCI Board of Scientific Counselors. He is the Principal Investigator of the DTRF-funded project, “A rational search for novel anti-drug therapies.”

Seth Pollack, MD, is an expert sarcoma specialist with a passion for helping patients with desmoid tumors. He is currently serving as the Director of the Sarcoma Program at the Lurie Cancer Center and the Steven T. Rosen Professor of Cancer Biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. As a physician-scientist, he is developing novel immunotherapies for patients with advanced sarcoma and leveraging unique features of sarcoma immunobiology to improve immunotherapy for all patients with cancer. 

As a clinician and sarcoma expert, he has chaired sessions at the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Japanese Society for Medical Oncology (JSMO), the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) and gave the keynote talk at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the British Sarcoma Group. Some of his awards have included the V Foundation Translational Award, the Alliance for Cancer Gene therapy, grants from the Sarcoma Foundation of America and the SARC Career Development Award. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.  

He sits on the NCCN guidelines panel for soft tissue sarcomas which includes the national guidelines for desmoid tumors. During his 12 years treating patients with sarcoma at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he received the Sig Kohl Legacy award from the Northwest Sarcoma Foundation for an “outstanding and enduring contribution to the care of sarcoma patients in the Northwest.” He is thrilled to be living in Chicago and helping patients suffering from desmoid tumors at the Lurie Cancer Center.

Christian Meyer, MD, PhD, serves  as the lead medical oncologist for adult sarcoma patients, and focusing on building the Adult Sarcoma and Connective Tissue Oncology Program. In collaboration with pediatric oncologist David Loeb, MD, PhD, and orthopaedic surgeon Kristy Weber, MD, Dr. Meyer brings novel therapies to the clinic for sarcoma patients.

Dr. Meyer received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in cell and molecular biology from Stanford University. From there, he joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Baylor College of Medicine and earned his medical degree followed by a doctorate in immunology. Meyer completed his residency at the University of Maryland and served as chief resident in medicine from 2004-2005.

Afterward, he joined the  fellowship program in medical oncology and has been working in the laboratory of Jonathan Powell, MD, PhD, on projects relating to the characterization of molecular regulatory pathways involved in T-cell activation and energy. As a third-year fellow, Meyer served as the chief fellow for our Training Programs in Hematology and Medical Oncology, and he received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2010.