Associate Professor
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Vivek Subbiah is an Associate professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, the Center Clinical Medical Director of the Clinical Center for Targeted Therapy and Executive Director of Cancer Medicine Research, MD Anderson Cancer Network. He serves as the Principal Investigator of many Phase I/II trials. His research interests are drug development in rare cancers. He has led several first-in-human and practice changing novel basket trials. He co-led the first ever histology independent international Vemurafenib Basket Trial in non-melanoma BRAF V600-mutated cancers, which pioneered a novel histology-independent clinical trial design. Vemurafenib was US FDA approved in Erdheim-Chester disease based on this trial. He served as the global PI for the global Rare Oncology Agnostic Research (ROAR) trial. Dabrafenib and trametinib was US FDA approved in the treatment of BRAF V600-mutant anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) based on this. He recently lead two selective RET inhibitor trials, Selpercatinib and Pralsetinib for RET dependent cancers both of which received accelerated US FDA approval in 2020 for RET + Lung and thyroid cancer. He co-lead the lurbinectedin basket trial which was received FDA approved for small cell lung cancer. In addition an FGFR inhibitor pemigatinib has also received US FDA approval for cholangiocarcinoma and he lead the phase 1 trial. Furthermore, his novel investigator-initiated trials have also laid the foundation for therapeutic breakthroughs for sarcomas. Specifically, his clinical trial for Radium-223 as a treatment for relapsed osteosarcoma was singularly responsible for the inclusion of this radiopharmaceutical in the treatment algorithm of osteosarcoma in the guidelines of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). He is a major advocate for precision oncology. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed in several prestigious journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Lancet Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research.
