We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Shreyaskumar “Shreyas” Patel, Medical Director of the Sarcoma Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center, as the next chair of the Chordoma Foundation’s Medical Advisory Board (MAB) and as the newest member of our Board of Directors.
Dr. Patel, who has served on the MAB since its inception, will succeed the founding MAB chair, Dr. Chandra Sen, who has also served as a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors since 2012. Dr. Sen spearheaded the formation of the MAB in 2014, and, under his leadership, it grew to include twelve leading chordoma specialists representing multiple disciplines and institutions across the U.S. and Europe. Going forward, Dr. Sen will remain on the MAB, providing an important perspective as one of the most experienced chordoma surgeons in the world.
Over the past three years, the MAB has become a tremendously valuable part of the Foundation’s team and an important asset to the chordoma patient and research communities. Some of the MABs notable accomplishments during Dr. Sen’s tenure include:
- Formalizing qualification criteria for the Foundation’s Doctor Directory
- Overseeing the design and initiation of the Foundation’s Patient Navigation Service
- Developing a strategy for supporting clinical trials
- Vetting more than 20 clinical trial concepts, and identifying 6 promising trials to support
- Establishing a recommended treatment pathway for patients with recurrent and advanced disease
“It has been an honor to work with such a dedicated and talented group of colleagues on the Chordoma Foundation’s MAB. The work we’ve done together has helped the Foundation pave the way for patients to get better care and for new treatments to reach the clinic. Now, as new drugs start to become available for chordoma, we need an experienced medical oncologist like Dr. Patel to lead the MAB. I look forward to seeing the impact that these new therapies have in lives of chordoma patients.” – Dr. Chandra Sen
Shepherding discoveries from lab to clinic
As more opportunities emerge to translate promising discoveries from the lab to the clinic, the Chordoma Foundation and the MAB will have an increasingly important role to play in guiding and supporting drug development.
As a recognized leader in sarcoma clinical research, Dr. Patel is ideally suited to help the Foundation embark upon this next phase of chordoma research. Dr. Patel brings to the Board a wealth of experience gained as an investigator on more than 20 sarcoma clinical trials, as well as in various leadership roles in the sarcoma oncology community, including through the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS), the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC) and others.
“This is such an exciting time in chordoma research. Our understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of the disease is improving, and promising new therapies are moving out of the lab and to patients. It’s a privilege to continue the important work begun by Dr. Sen, and to help the Foundation become an even greater force for progress toward new treatments for this disease.”
– Dr. Shreyas Patel
All of us at the Foundation are deeply grateful to Dr. Sen for helping us get to this exciting point, and for recruiting such a capable successor to take his place on both the Board of Directors and as MAB chair. As Dr. Sen passes the baton to Dr. Patel, we thank them both for their tremendous service to the Foundation, and look forward to continuing to work together to bring better treatments to chordoma patients.