Chief Editors

David Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Fisher is chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). He also serves as director of the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center and director of the Melanoma Center at MGH. Fisher’s research has focused on understanding the molecular and genetic events which underlie formation of melanoma as well as skin pigmentation. As a clinician, he has worked to translate these understandings into advances in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human diseases related to the skin and associated disorders. A graduate of Swarthmore College with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, Fisher is also a concert cellist and graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He received his PhD under doctors Henry Kunkel and Gunter Blobel at Rockefeller University and his Medical Degree at Cornell University Medical College. He carried out post-doctoral training with Dr. Phillip Sharp at MIT. Fisher’s specialty training in Medicine, Pediatrics, and Oncology were carried out at Harvard Medical School. He currently is the president of the Society for Melanoma Research.

Keith Flaherty, M.D.

Dr. Flaherty received a Bachelor of Science from Yale University and medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program in the Abramson Cancer Center in 2002. In 2009, Dr. Flaherty moved to Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to serve as the Director of Developmental Therapeutics for the MGH Cancer Center. He was awarded a K23 grant from the NCI to investigate the inhibition of angiogenesis with targeted therapy combinations in melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. In addition to being principal investigator of numerous first-in-human clinical trials with novel targeted therapies, he is the principal investigator of two national, cooperative group trials: E2603, a phase III trial comparing sorafenib, carboplatin and paclitaxel to carboplatin and paclitaxel alone in patients with metastatic melanoma and E2804, a randomized phase II trial comparing combinations of anti-angiogenic agents in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. He served as principal investigator for the first-in-human clinical trials of the first prospectively developed selective BRAF inhibitors, RAF-265 and Zelboraf. Zelboraf has emerged as the most active single-agent therapy ever evaluated in metastatic melanoma patients, and is rapidly being tested in a phase III trial of which Dr. Flaherty serves as co-principal investigator. He is internationally known for expertise in clinical and translational research directed against signal transduction pathways in melanoma.

Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D.

Heinz-Josef Lenz, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine in the USC Departments of Medicine, and Preventive Medicine, Scientific Director of the Cancer Genetics Unit and the Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, and Co-Director of the Colorectal Center at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lenz earned his M.D. degree at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universitin Mainz, Germany. In 1991, he completed his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Eberhardt Karls University in Tubingen, Germany. He had special fellowship training at UniversitHeinzWien (Austria), George Washington University and Harvard Medical School. In 1991, he received the prestigious Research Fellowship Award from Deutsche (Bonn, Germany). He completed his research fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at the USC/Norris Cancer Center before joining the faculty of USC in 1994. He was awarded a Career Development Award from STOP CANCER (1994-1997). Based on his research, he also received in 1994 a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In 1995, Dr. Lenz was selected for the prestigious ASCO Career Development Award.

Ravi Salgia, M.D., Ph.D.

Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD, is a tenured professor of medicine, pathology and dermatology, and the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program, and Aerodigestive Tract Program Translational Research Lab in the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago Medical Center in Illinois. Dr Salgia is also an attending physician in the Department of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology, University of Chicago. Dr Salgia is a member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, among others. He is also a member of the Committee on Cancer Biology and Clinical Trials Review Committee at the University of Chicago. Dr s research interests focus on novel therapeutics against lung cancer. He has been an invited lecturer to more than 300 symposia and seminars. Dr Salgia has been honored with numerous awards, including recently being named one of the Top Doctors in America. Dr Salgia is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Carcinogenesis, Update on Cancer Therapeutics, and Current s Health Reviews. He also serves as associate editor for the Journal of Environmental Pathology, Toxicology, and Oncology. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, 125 abstracts, and 30 book chapters. Dr Salgia earned a medical degree from Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois, where he also obtained a doctorate of philosophy. He did his internship/residency in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also did his Medical Oncology Fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was on faculty at the DFCI for a decade before moving to the University of Chicago.