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J. Joshua Smith, MD, PhD

Professor and Chair
Department of Colon & Rectal Surgery, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, Texas, United States

J. Joshua Smith, M.D., Ph.D. is the Chair of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He leads a department of ~50, comprised of faculty, fellows, APPs, nurses, and administrative staff. His vision is for the department to be the premier colon and rectal surgery unit in the world as his team works to eliminate colon, rectal, and anal cancer in Texas, the nation and around the world using state of the art surgical and research techniques in a multidisciplinary setting while training, developing and mentoring the next generation of leaders. As a surgeon and scientist, he seeks to uncover more precise treatments for each individual rectal, colon, and anal cancer patient using novel surgical and research methods. He chairs multiple national committees and international collaborations and serves as the Chair and PI for The Janus Rectal Cancer Trial, an NCI-funded Phase II/III trial investigating nonoperative management and disease-free survival in patients with rectal cancer through the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, SWOG and NRG Oncology (NCT05610163). The Smith laboratory created the first viable rectal cancer patient-derived organoids (PMID: 31591597) and now maintains a living biorepository of nearly 500 tumoroids and paired normal rectal organoid specimens utilized to identify more precise treatments for patients with rectal cancer and advance their clinical care. He is the PI of a growing, NCI-funded translational laboratory, where his team endeavors to understand the molecular underpinnings of disease progression in patients with rectal cancer to develop individualized disease models facilitating both effective research and precision treatment.

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