Alando Ballantyne Professor and Chairman of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery
UT MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX, United States
Dr. Jeffrey N. Myers is Professor and Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at the University
of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also holds the Alando J. Ballantyne Distinguished Chair of
Head and Neck Surgery. He was the President of the American Head and Neck Society in July 2016 and
served through 2017. Dr. Myers received his medical (MD) and doctoral (PhD) degrees from the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and he then completed his residency training in Otolaryngology-Head
and Neck Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He subsequently completed fellowship training in Head
and Neck Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1997, where he has
been on the faculty ever since. Dr. Myers, has been at the forefront in the comprehensive genomic
characterization of oral cancers and has made seminal contributions to understanding the mechanisms of
p53 gain of function mutations in oral cancer progression and metastasis. His continuous and progressive
discoveries are fundamental building blocks in the understanding of human cancer. He first reported the
comprehensive genomic characterization of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and
developed an algorithm, termed evolutionary action (EAp53), to identify gain of function p53 mutations
that has both prognostic and predictive value. Dr. Myers research revealed previously unappreciated
alterations in Notch, cell cycle and p53 pathways in HNSCC, which provided important biological insights
that are helping to define new clinical strategies to treat this disease. Through continued pre-clinical study
of Notch and p53 mutant HNSCC, he and his team identified therapeutic vulnerabilities to PI-3 kinase
inhibition and DNA damage repair protein inhibition. These strategies show promise as single agents and
are likely to have more efficacy in combination with conventional treatments such as radiation,
chemotherapy, and/or immunotherapy.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Head and Neck Surgical Oncology Fellow Training Around the World
Monday, October 2, 2023
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM East Coast USA Time