FACULTY:

J. Valerie Ravan Andrews, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Andrews grew up in Atlanta, GA where she attended the Westminister Schools and went on to Vanderbilt University.  Dr. Andrews graduated AOA from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1982.  She did her general surgery and surgical oncology training at The Brigham and Women's Hospital of Harvard Medical School. During her fellowship, she did basic science research in the roles of novel cytokines in the cytotoxic response to solid malignancy.  She served for 3 years in the United States Air Force at Wilford Hall Medical Center where she led the Multidisciplinary Breast Cancer Clinic and was a P.I. on the Multi-Center Laparoscopic Colectomy trial. Since settling in Dallas, she has been on staff at Baylor University Medical Center and now, UTSWMC faculty.  She is an active member of the Society of Surgical Oncology and The American Society of Breast Surgeons.  Her clinical and applied research interests are in the area of breast cancer prevention and surgical care.  Dr. Andrews has been married for 23 years to Tom Andrews, a cardiologist at Baylor University Medical Center.  They have 3 daughters and are active in their community of Lakewood & Park Cities Presbyterian Church.

Thomas Anthony, M.D.
Professor
Dr. Anthony received his medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1988. He went on to do his residency at the University of Washington, and completed his fellowship at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in 1995. At that time he received the E. Douglas Holyoke Award for Outstanding Clinical/Scientific Work as a surgical oncology fellow. Dr. Anthony joined UT Southwestern faculty as an assistant professor of surgery in 1995. He now serves as Chief of Surgical Services at the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System in Dallas, and chairs the VA Cancer Committee and the VA Human Subjects Subcommittee. In 1999 Dr. Anthony was selected to attend an advanced course in clinical epidemiology, the Program in Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. His clinical interest is in the area of gastrointestinal oncology. 

Glen Balch, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Balch joined the Department of Surgery at the UT Southwestern Medical School and the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center in the middle of 2009, to lead the colon and rectal cancer programs.   He received his undergraduate degree from Trinity University in San Antonio, and received his M.D. from The University of Texas Medical School in Houston in 1998. His surgical residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was completed in 2005.  While at Vanderbilt, he worked with the chairman of Surgery, Dr. R. Daniel Beauchamp, investigating abnormalities in cell signal transduction pathways in colon and rectal cancers.  In 2005, he began a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.  In addition, he completed a fellowship in Colorectal Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College under the direction of Drs. Doug Wong and Jeffrey Milsom.  After completing his fellowships, Dr. Balch joined the faculty at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and practiced for two years at Evanston Northwestern Hospital in the division of Surgical Oncology.  His clinical interests include gastrointestinal malignancies, with a focus on colon and rectal cancer, including primary, recurrent, and metastatic disease to the liver.  Furthermore, he has an expertise in minimally invasive surgical techniques, including laparoscopic colectomies, robotic assisted procedures, and transanal endoscopic microsurgery.   His research interests include minimally invasive surgical techniques in the treatment of cancer patients and the use of biomarker analysis for patient selection and individualized treatment.

Rolf Brekken, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dr. Brekken received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in 1991 and graduated from UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1999. His graduate research was focused in the use of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) as a target for the therapy of solid tumors. In August 2002, he completed his postdoctoral training under Dr. E. Helene Sage in the Department of of Vascular Biology at the Hope Heart Institute in Seattle, Washington. His research interests include angiogenesis and extracellular matrix remodeling in tumors and the development of novel tumor targeting and drug delivery agents for the therapy of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Brekken has a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

William C. Brooks, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Brooks graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1958. From 1958 to 1962 he did his internship and general surgery residency at St. Paul Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. In 1963 he completed a surgical fellowship at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, Texas. From 1963 to 1999 Dr. Brooks served as a member of the medical staff at St. Paul Medical Center. For six of those years, 1968 to 1974, he directed the Department of Medical Education at that institution. Within the Texas Medical Association, from 1986 to 1998, he served as Chairman of the Physician Oncology Education Program. During his many years of service within the Dallas medical community, he also operated a private practice. In 1999, after retiring from St. Paul Medical Center, Dr. Brooks joined the UT Southwestern faculty as a clinical assistant professor of surgery. He currently staffs the Parkland surgical oncology clinics on a part-time basis.

David Euhus, M.D.
Professor
Dr. Euhus graduated from Saint Louis University Medical School in 1984 and did his surgical residency and surgical oncology fellowship at UCLA from 1984 to 1991. Dr. Euhus joined the faculty of UT Southwestern as an assistant professor of surgery in 1996 after serving in the U.S. Army as a surgical oncologist at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. He was promoted to associate professor in 2001, and was promoted to professor of surgery in 2007.  His clinical and research interests are in breast cancer with a focus on breast cancer risk measurement and prevention. He has authored several interactive software tools for risk measurement, which can be found in many major cancer centers across the nation. One of these programs, CancerGene, has been distributed to over 350 cancer centers in more than ten countries. He serves as Co-Director of the Mary L. Brown Breast Cancer Genetics and Risk Assessment Program at the UT Southwestern Center for Breast Care, and in this role has implemented numerous clinical research protocols to provide options to those patients deemed to be at high-risk for developing breast cancer. His molecular biology laboratory is investigating the earliest genetic changes that convert a normal breast cell into a cancer cell.  Dr. Euhus is the Marilyn R. Corrigan Distinguished Chair in Breast Cancer Surgery.  He is also the director of the popular course entitled Intraoperative Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy, which is held at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 

James Huth, M.D.
Professor
Dr. Huth graduated from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1975. His internship and residency were done at the University of Washington School of Medicine from 1975 to 1982, including a postdoctoral surgical oncology research fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Huth joined the faculty of UT Southwestern as professor of surgery in 1993, after teaching at UCLA and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He served as the Chairman of the Division of Surgical Oncology from 1993 - 2005.  He, also, served as acting director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1995 to 1997.  

A. Marilyn Leitch, M.D.
Professor
Dr. Leitch graduated from Southwestern Medical School, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1978.  She did her residency and surgical oncology research fellowship at UCLA and completed her clinical surgical oncology fellowship at M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston. Dr. Leitch joined UT Southwestern faculty as assistant professor of surgery in 1986, was promoted to associate professor in 1994, and was promoted to professor of surgery in 1998.  Her primary clinical interest relates to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and she is considered to be a local, regional, and national authority on this subject.  She has been instrumental in developing guidelines for early breast cancer detection and has been one of the leading voices in this country promoting the continuation of routine screening practices in women 40‑50 years of age.  Dr. Leitch is the recipient of many honors, with the most recent being the S.T. Harris Family Distinguished Chair in Breast Surgery – in Honor of A. Marilyn Leitch, M.D.  She is active within the American Cancer Society, both as a board member and assembly member of the national society, and as a past president of the Texas Division of the American Cancer Society.  In August 1997, Governor George W. Bush appointed Dr. Leitch to the Governor’s Commission for Women.  She currently serves as the medical director for the UT Southwestern Center for Breast Care.  Dr. Leitch is Program Director of the Susan G. Komen Fellowship Program at the Center for Breast Care.

John C. Mansour, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Mansour received his undergraduate degree from The University of Notre Dame and received his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1999. His surgical residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics was completed in 2005.  While at the University of Wisconsin he worked with Dr. John Niederhuber investigating mechanisms of RNA stability. In 2005 he began his Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  After completing his Fellowship, Dr. Mansour joined the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center.  His clinical interests include gastrointestinal, pancreatic, and hepatobiliary malignancies.  His research interests include the development of strategies to individualize cancer treatment strategies based on the molecular characteristics of each patient's tumor.

Amy Moldrem, M.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Moldrem graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1999 and completed her general surgery residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2004.  She joined a private practice in Lexington, Kentucky, where she practiced general surgery and became the co-director of The Center for Breast Care at Lexington Clinic.  In 2007, she returned to University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she completed the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship.  Dr. Moldrem joined the UT faculty in 2008 and works primarily in breast cancer care with underserved patients at Parkland Hospital.  Her clinical and research interests include hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome and breast cancer subtypes and outcomes in multiracial and low socioeconomic groups.

Roshni Rao, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Rao received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1995, and went on to graduate from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine in 1999.  She completed her residency in general surgery at Baystate Medical Center - The Western Campus of Tufts University in Springfield, Massachusettes in 2004.  In 2005, Dr. Rao completed a Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.  She joined the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in August of 2005 as an Assistant Professor of surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology.  Her clinical interests include the treatment of locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer.  Her research interests involve exploring ethnic differences in breast cancer, as well as evaluating the reconstructive decisions made by women.

Roderich Schwarz, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman
Dr. Schwarz joined the Department of Surgery at the UT Southwestern Medical School and the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center in the middle of 2007, to serve as Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Division of Surgical Oncology.  A native of Germany, he completed his medical training at the Medical School of Hannover, Germany, in 1984, and presented his dissertation with a thesis in experimental hepatopathology in 1985.  Until 1989, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, and subsequently underwent residency training in General Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.  In 1994, he started a two-year fellowship training in Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he has received specialty training for gastrointestinal cancer with Drs. Murray F. Brennan, Alfred M. Cohen, and Leslie H. Blumgart.  From 1996 to 2001, he served as Section Head of Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatobiliary Surgery at the City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles, California.  Subsequently, he led the Pancreatic Cancer Program at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ, from 2001 to 2007.  Dr. Schwarz has a special interest in upper gastrointestinal malignancies, including pancreatic, hepatobiliary, and gastric cancer.  He has presented numerous talks at national and international meetings, and has authored more than eighty peer reviewed journal articles and several book chapters.  His research interests focus on experimental combination therapy for pancreatic and gastric cancer, novel local regional therapies for liver and bile duct lesions, and minimizing morbidity after major visceral resections.

Adam Yopp, M.D.
Assistant Professor

LABORATORY STAFF:

Niranjan Awasthi, PhD
Dawei Bu, PhD
Cheryl Lewis, PhD

STAFF:

Carol Mayorga, Program Coordinator
Michelle Payton, Sr. Administrative Assistant
Marquita Sparks, Sr. Administrative Assistant
Toshia Stelivan, Sr. Administrative Associate, Division Administrator
Lynn VanHooser, NP
Kathryn Zagala-Nevarez, PA