Chief Executive Officer
Chandrakanth Are, MD, MBA, FSSO
Dr. Are is an accomplished researcher and leader in surgical oncology. He has lived, trained and worked in various healthcare systems worldwide igniting a passion for international surgical cancer care.
Dr. Are holds the title of Jerald L. and Carolynn J. Varner Professor of Surgical Oncology and Global Health. He is the Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education for the College of Medicine and Vice-Chair for Education in the Department of Surgery. He also serves as the Surgical Director for the Davis Global Center, the simulation center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Are has lived, trained and worked in various healthcare systems worldwide. He obtained his medical degree from Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. He then received his Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (FRSCI). Dr. Are completed his general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Dr. Are has an Executive MBA degree from the University of Omaha.
Dr. Are is involved in research with multiple publications. He is the director of two national and four international research collaboratives and is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Graduate Medical Education Research Journal (GMERJ). He serves on the editorial boards of several journals. At the national level, he serves on the Residency Review Committee (RRC) for Surgery at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and also on the Board of Scientific Advisors (BSA) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
President
Ashraf S. Zaghloul, MD, PhD, FACS, FSSO, FESSO
Dr. Zaghloul leads a distinguished career as a clinical and academic surgical oncologist and leading authority in minimally invasive surgery with an intense commitment to multidisciplinary care globally.
Dr. Ashraf S. Zaghloul leads a distinguished career as a clinical and academic surgical oncologist and a leading authority in minimally invasive surgery. He founded the first Robotic Surgical Unit, not only in Egypt but also, in Africa in 2011. Dr. Zaghloul has over 40 years of experience in cancer management and research. He was a member of the first team of liver transplantation from cadavers in 1990 at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He also led a joint study with MD Anderson in 1996 which studied the role of hepatitis C in hepatocellular carcinoma and was published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in 2001.
During his career, he became a resident of surgical oncology at NCI. He headed the cystoscopy unit in 2000 and established it as a comprehensive, unique unit with a urodynamic lab. In 2007, he became the director of the OR Unit and upgraded the entire service to meet international standards of practice. Dr Zaghloul became the Director of the NCI from 2008 to 2011. During this period, he launched a national fundraising campaign to complete renovation of the old building with 280 beds and upgraded all equipment within one year. He established a state-of-the-art surgical suite with a surgical intensive care unit.
As a Chairman of the Association of Friends of the National Cancer Institute (AFNCI), he supervised planning, design, construction and building of a state-of-the-art outpatients’ clinic building in the premises of the institute. All the costs of this project were carried out by AFNCI and donated to the institute on May 10, 2014.
In 2011, he was appointed the Assistant of Minister of Health for specialized cancer centers and the Secretary general of the Supreme National Cancer Committee. In 2012, he became the director of National Project for the Reform and Development of University Hospitals.
Dr. Zaghloul has active participation in many professional societies. He shared in the foundation of the Egyptian Society of Surgical Oncology (EGSSO), as well as the Egyptian Society of Head and Neck Oncology (ESHNO). He served as Secretary General of EGSSO from 2009 t0 2011 and as Vice Chairman of the ESHNO from 2010 to 2014. He served as President of EGSSO from 2017 to 2021. Dr. Zaghloul is well renowned internationally; he was elected to the membership of the American Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) as a fellow of the society on June 24, 2011. He served as a board member of the International Committee of the SSO for 3 years, as well as the Euro Arab School of Oncology (EASO). He is a fellow of ACS since 2012 and a fellow of ESSO since 2007. Faculty member of the Collage of the European School of Oncology since 2020.
President-Elect
Geerard L. Beets, MD, PhD
Treasurer
Rajendra Toprani, MS, MCh
Dr. Rajendra Toprani M.S., M.Ch. (Surgical Oncology) is a Senior Consultant – Head & Neck Surgical Oncologist, Director of Department of Surgical Oncology and Director at HCG AASTHA Cancer Centre, Ahmedabad.
He had a brilliant academic career during his school and medical college at Ahmedabad. After having completed M.B.B.S. he did his M.S. (General Surgery) in 1991 from V. S. Hospital at Ahmedabad. He then recieved training in Surgical Oncology at Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (GCRI), Ahmedabad and completed his M.Ch. in 1994. Thereafter he pursued his interest in Head & Neck Cancer Surgery and underwent advanced training in Head & Neck Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York, U.S.A. in 1996 under Dr. Jatin Shah (Chief of Head and Neck Services at MSKCC). He is a visiting fellow at M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, USA & had spent time there with Dr. Randal Weber. His areas of interest are Oral & Laryngeal Cancers, Thyroid and Parotid Tumors. He has expertise in voice preserving Laryngectomies and Trans Oral Endoscopic Laser Surgery (TOLS) for which he was trained in Endoscopic Laser Surgery at University of Kiel, Germany in 2009 with Dr. Petra Ambosch. He is also a trained Robotic Surgeon and underwent training for Trans Oral Robotic Surgery (TORS) with Prof. Weinstein at UPENN at Philadelphia in 2016.
He was instrumental in setting up a state of the art tertiary care Cancer Center & establishing India’s largest sub specialty Surgical Group at Ahmedabad in a corporate sector. He has also started DrNB Surgical Oncology teaching program at his center in 2018.
He has been invited to many conferences for Orations, Keynote Lectures and Presentations. He was the President of Indian Association of Surgical Oncology (IASO) for 2021-22 and currently President of Indian Society of Oncology (ISO). He was the organizing secretary of International Federation of Head & Neck Oncologic Societies (IFHNOS) World Tour 2012 International Conference at Ahmedabad & the IFHNOS Head & Neck Cancer summit at Chennai in 2023.
Research Coordinator
Shilpa S. Murthy, MD, MPH
Dr. Murthy is a global surgical oncologist with interests in society and medicine, oncology and surgery, and health policy.
Shilpa S. Murthy, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Surgery, the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Her research has focused on the intersection between policy, public health, surgery and how these fields can improve health care delivery for disenfranchised and vulnerable cancer patients. She completed her undergraduate degree with high honors in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan, attended medical school at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and completed general surgery residency training at Indiana University. During her residency, she obtained an MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and was a research fellow at the Center for the Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where she trained in health services research, global surgery/oncology, and spent time in Rwanda, Africa. Her colorectal fellowship was at the John Goligher Colorectal Unit, in Leeds England, sponsored by the Royal College of Surgeons England. She went on to complete a Surgical Oncology Global Cancer Disparities Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she spent clinical and research time at MSKCC in New York City as well as in Nigeria, Africa. Dr. Murthy also brings experience working with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland in the Cancer Division where she contributed to the WHO Report on Cancer and was also a Lancet Commissioner for the Lancet Oncology Journal Commissions in Global Cancer Surgery Part I and Part II. Her interests are in society and medicine, oncology and surgery, and health policy.