To support an annual award for the most successful Neurosurgical Oncology Fellow.
Raymond Sawaya, MD, FAANS, was the founding chair of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, as well as an advisor to the leaders of the Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Moon Shot™. He also served as director of the Brain Tumor Center and is currently holder of the Anne C. Brooks & Anthony D. Bullock, III Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery.
Dr. Sawaya earned his medical degree from St. Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon, and completed a surgical internship at Beekman Downtown Hospital in New York City. Multiple residencies followed: in general surgery at Upstate Medical Center State University of New York, in pediatric neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and in neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. In 1980, he accepted the position of chief resident in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and then held a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Fogarty International fellow. At NIH, he found his career focus: brain tumors and, in particular, glioblastomas. He was recruited back to the University of Cincinnati in 1982, where he spent eight years building that institution’s brain tumor program.
Dr. Sawaya has influenced the field of neurosurgical oncology in several major ways. Ever since he was recruited in 1990 to establish a newly formed Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson, he has built the most comprehensive and best recognized neurosurgical oncology program in the country (Neurosurgery 56: 841-50, 2005). From 2005 to 2015 he co-currently served as Chair of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Sawaya is an internationally recognized leader in neurosurgery, with particular expertise in primary and metastatic brain tumors. His laboratory work helped identify molecular determinates of brain tumor invasiveness, and in particular, the role of serine proteases and their roles in glioma oncogenesis (over 60 publications). On the clinical side he has helped identify brain metastases as a major threat to the well-being of cancer patients, and was the first to promote the treatment of patients with multiple brain metastases (J Neurosurg 79: 210-6, 1993; 387 citations). Dr. Sawaya is renowned for his great strides in enhancing the accessibility and safety of brain tumor surgery. This can best be demonstrated in his landmark paper on the importance of extent of resection on the survival of glioblastoma patients (Dr. Sawaya is an internationally recognized leader in neurosurgery, with particular expertise in primary and metastatic brain tumors. His laboratory work helped identify molecular determinates of brain tumor invasiveness, and in particular, the role of serine proteases and their roles in glioma oncogenesis (over 60 publications). On the clinical side he has helped identify brain metastases as a major threat to the well-being of cancer patients, and was the first to promote the treatment of patients with multiple brain metastases (J Neurosurg 79: 210-6, 1993; 387 citations). Dr. Sawaya is renowned for his great strides in enhancing the accessibility and safety of brain tumor surgery. This can best be demonstrated in his landmark paper on the importance of extent of resection on the survival of glioblastoma patients (J Neurosurg 95: 190-8, 2001; 1734 citations). He has also conducted the first prospective trial on the use of intraoperative MRI to maximize the extent of resection (Neurosurgery 64: 1073-81, 2009; 129 citations).). He has also conducted the first prospective trial on the use of intraoperative MRI to maximize the extent of resection (Neurosurgery 64: 1073-81, 2009; 129 citations).
Dr. Sawaya has published more than 300 articles and book chapters and has served as both reviewer and editor for a number of peer-reviewed journals. He is the past president of the American Radium Society, the past president of the Houston Neurological Society and past chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Congress of Neurological Surgeons Section on Tumors. He is in demand as a lecturer across the nation and around the world and has received a number of awards in recognition of his expertise. These include the 2009 Charles Wilson Award, the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors, the 2016 Charles LeMaistre outstanding achievement award in Cancer from MD Anderson Cancer Center, the 2018 Medal of Honor from the Federation of Latin American.
In a 2016 article, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons’ online journal Neurosurgeon referred to Dr. Sawaya as a “triple threat” who has excelled as a surgeon, researcher and teacher and noted that he was very successful as a leader and an advocate for the field. Dr. Sawaya considers his greatest achievement the building and maintaining of MD Anderson’s comprehensive brain tumor program, which has allowed him to touch the lives of many patients.
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