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
(2026-2027)
Geerard L. Beets, MD, PhD
Prof. Dr. Geerard Beets is a gastrointestinal, oncological surgeon and head of the Department of Surgery at Maastricht UMC+. He studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he also completed the training in surgery. From 1993 to 2015, he worked in Maastricht successively as a temporary staff member, permanent staff member and acting head in the surgery department and as director of the oncology centre. From 2015 to 2024, he worked at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek specialist oncology hospital in Amsterdam as a colorectal oncological surgeon and as head of the Surgery department.
Within colorectal oncology, the treatment of rectal cancer is a special area of interest for Prof. Beets, with the development of the MRI rectum as a basic staging and organ-sparing treatment as important milestones. The research aims to improve both the oncological outcome and the quality of life.
Prof. Beets is a member of the board of the Dutch Society for Surgical Oncology and is President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology.
President-Elect
(2027-2028)
T. Subramanyeshwar Rao, MD
Treasurer
(2025-2027)
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.