Howard Burris, M.D.

Dr. Burris is chief medical officer and president of clinical operations for Sarah Cannon, the global cancer institute of Hospital Corporation of America. He leads clinical strategy and drug development initiatives, which includes the overseeing of physician-led, patient-centric integrated cancer services. He is also an associate with Tennessee Oncology, PLLC. Dr. Burris established the first community-based phase 1 drug development program in Nashville in 1977, which became the Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He led the first-in-human studies for many now-approved drugs that have changed the standard of care for several types of cancers, including docetaxel and ado-trastuzumab emtansine in breast cancer and everolimus in kidney cancer. He has authored more than 300 publications and more than 450 abstracts. In 2014, he was named a Giant of Cancer Care at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Burris received his medical degree from the University of South Alabama and completed his residency and fellowship in hematology/oncology at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. While there, he served as director of clinical research at the Institute for Drug Development of the Cancer Therapy and Research Center, and was an associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He has served on the ASCO Board of Governors, ASCO Audit Committee, and as chair of an ASCO nominating committee