Speaker Profile
M.D., Director of the Ludwig Center at Dana-Farber/Harvard
Biography
As director of the Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology and now the senior vice president for Experimental Therapeutics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, George Demetri, MD, has long been a leader in treating complex cancers. He was a pioneer in the development of Gleevec — one of the first examples of targeted cancer therapies, focused on a form of sarcoma known as gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Subsequently, his work has led to the FDA approval of several other “smart drugs” for cancer, including Sutent for GIST and most recently Votrient for other sarcomas. He has designed and implemented a world-renowned clinical research center focused on the treatment of sarcomas, and his team is at the cutting edge of developing personalized cancer therapeutics for specific subtypes of sarcomas. Outside of the laboratory, Dr. Demetri has been instrumental in raising awareness of issues relating to sarcoma on the Internet, founding a nonprofit educational site for sarcoma patients and their families and serving as the chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Sarcoma Foundation of America and chair of the Scientific Committee of the Hope Funds for Cancer Research.
