Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP is the executive director of the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is an international expert on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and has been involved in MPN research for more than 20 years. He led the development of National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s MPN panel guidelines, the first U.S. guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia. He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of more than 100 clinical trials including numerous global phase 3 trials. He was a co-leader contributing to the FDA’s approval of ruxolitinib for polycythemia vera and myelofibrosis, and fedratinib for myelofibrosis. He currently co-leads the NCI P01 funded MPN Research Consortium.
Dr. Mesa is deeply committed to advancing cancer health equity and is involved with numerous national initiatives regarding expanding diversity in both cancer training and clinical trial participation. He has been an active member with AACI, AACR, ASH and ASCO through a variety of leadership roles and is currently an elected board member of the Association of American Cancer Institutes as well as serves on the board of the MPN Education Foundation. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in 2018 and subsequently served as an officer of the board in 2020. He was the chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology for the Mayo Clinic in Arizona from 2009-2017 and deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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, Minn. 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.