John V. Heymach MD, PhD

Dr. Heymach is the Chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds the David Bruton Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his MD/Ph.D. from Stanford. He completed his Internship and Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in Medical Oncology from the Dana Farber/Mass General Brigham program.

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Heymach’s research focuses on investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to targeted agents, understanding the regulation of angiogenesis in lung cancer, and developing of biomarkers for targeted agents and immunotherapy. His research has led to new therapeutic approaches for KRAS mutant lung cancer, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenoid cystic carcinoma, and oligometastatic NSCLC, many of which are now considered standard of care regimens or undergoing clinical testing.

He serves as PI on 4 R01 awards investigating molecular subsets of lung cancer, and on a U01 focused on SCLC. He serves as the MDACC PI for the SU2C-ACS Lung Cancer Dream Team targeting KRAS mutant lung cancers, as the leader of the Lung CCSG Program, and as the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Moon Shot. He is also the co-PI and project leader of the Lung SPORE. As a clinical investigator, he leads a number of biomarker-directed clinical trials using targeted and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. He has directly mentored numerous fellows, including physician-scientists, and serves as chair of the NCI Molecular Cancer Therapeutics-1 study section.