Dr. Ruben Mesa
Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP, leads the mission and programs against cancer across Atrium Health with the joint roles of President & Executive Director, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Atrium Health Senior Vice President and Vice Dean for Cancer Programs at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Dr. Mesa is an international expert in hematologic cancers. He has dedicated his life‘s work to research and drug development for myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a group of chronic leukemias that can cause difficult symptoms, bone marrow problems, acute leukemia and premature death. His research focuses on MPN biology, novel therapeutics and over 100 phase I-III clinical trials, symptom assessment tools and non- pharmacological interventions to alleviate MPN symptoms. He has authored over 800- lifetime medical publications, with more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 15 book chapters and two edited books. Known nationally and internationally, he’s a frequently invited speaker with over 600 lectures. Dr. Mesa has led or co-led the development of six drugs that have been FDA approved for MPNs. He was the inaugural panel chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network‘s (NCCN) guideline panel for the first U.S. guidelines for MPNs.