Dr. Ruben Mesa is the Executive Director at the Mays Cancer Center, at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. The Mays Cancer Center is one of only four National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. For almost 30 years the cancer center has had a deep focus on providing world class cancer care, advancing cancer research and educating the next generation of cancer care scientists and care providers.

After earning degrees in nuclear engineering and physiology, with minors in radiation biophysics and bioengineering, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Mesa received his medical degree from the Mayo Graduate School at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He completed his residency in internal medicine and his fellowship in hematology/medical oncology at Mayo. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and medical oncology. Dr. Mesa was the Chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology for the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Deputy Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center until transitioning to San Antonio.

Dr. Mesa’s own practice builds on his role as an international expert on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of bone marrow disorders that often lead to leukemia. He has been involved in MPN research for more than 20 years. He led the development of National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s panel guidelines, the first U.S. guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia. Dr. Mesa has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of more than 100 clinical trials and has authored over 400 peer reviewed manuscripts. He was a co-leader contributing to the FDA’s approval of ruxolitinib for polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis, and fedratinib for myelofibrosis. He is currently leading the investigation of several other drugs for these types of cancers. Dr. Mesa was elected to the Board of Directors, and subsequently to the executive committee, of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and sits on the board of the MPN Education Foundation. Dr. Mesa is the editor in chief of Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports has been an active member with AACR, ASH and ASCO with a variety of leadership roles.