George Demetri

George Demetri, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR has dedicated his career to translational research aimed at understanding and treating precisely-defined subsets of sarcomas and other cancers. He was a pioneer in the development of imatinib (Glivec®), the first cancer therapy targeting gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as a molecularly-defined subset of sarcoma. Subsequently, his work has contributed to the U.S. FDA and worldwide regulatory approvals of several other “smart drugs” for cancer, including sunitinib (Sutent®) and regorafenib (Stivarga®) for GIST, tazemetostat (Tazverik®) for epithelioid sarcomas, as well as pazopanib (Votrient®), eribulin (Halaven®) and trabectedin (Yondelis®) for other sarcomas. In a related contribution, Dr. Demetri served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Plexxikon to develop the first mutant BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib (Zelboraf®), as a mutation-targeted therapy for a subset of melanomas. More recently, he serves on the Board of Directors of two public companies: Blueprint Medicines in Cambridge, MA, which discovered and developed avapritinib (Ayvakit®) for a mutationally-defined subset of GIST previously resistant to all other therapies, and Translate Bio which is developing mRNA technology for various indications.

He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College, followed by a research fellowship at the Universite of Besancon, France before attending Stanford University School of Medicine. Subsequently, he completed residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle, then Fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (HMS). At Dana-Farber, he is the Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics and directs the Sarcoma Center.

Dr. Demetri is a Professor of Medicine at HMS, where he is co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard. He has served on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors and chairs the AACR Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee; he is also a founding director of the annual AACR special workshop on Translational Cancer Research for the Basic Scientist.