Evan Glazer, MD, PhD, a surgical oncologist and associate professor at UT Health Science Center, maintains a busy clinical practice and an active research portfolio in Memphis. Still, when he can, he joins a Sunday morning conference call to help manage the treatment of patients in Nepal.
The multidisciplinary call stems from his work with the Binaytara Foundation, which works to improve cancer care in Nepal and to build a cancer hospital there for underserved. “I’ve also regularly given them thoughts and recommendations as to how to build the operating suites at the hospital, which should break ground later this year,” he says.
For his commitment to giving cancer patients in Memphis and elsewhere access to cutting-edge care and innovative research regardless of race, gender, wealth, ethnicity, and other factors, Dr. Glazer was recently named one of Memphis Magazine’s 2024 Innovation Awards winner. The annual awards honor people and organizations making the city a better place to live through innovation.
Dr. Glazer came to Memphis from Moffitt Cancer Care in Tampa Florida in 2016. His clinical practice is at Regional One Health, UT Health Science Center’s primary adult hospital affiliate.
“The collaboration between UT Health Science Center and Regional One Health represents a diverse team of people interested in changing the conversation for our community,” Dr. Glazer says. He is a leader in changing that conversation.
Dr. Glazer helmed the university’s work as a lead institution in a phase 3 study evaluating the role of liver perfusion for patients with ocular melanoma that has spread to the liver. While ocular melanoma is a rare cancer, the Hamilton Eye institute at UT Health Science Center sees a large number of patients with this (approximately 20% of the patients in the country).
More than half develop metastases to the liver and only the liver. The phase 3 clinical trial found that perfusion or putting chemotherapy directly into the liver improved survival. The results of this study eventually led to FDA approval of this treatment.
Additionally, while the FDA evaluated the data, UT Health Science Center and Regional One Health were among less than five sites in the country involved in an Expanded Access Program, which allows for patients to have access to promising treatments before they are readily available or approved. Since the treatment was approved, Dr. Glazer and other UT Health Science Center surgical faculty, now perform liver perfusion as the standard of care for these patients at Regional One Health.
This collaboration between the UT Health Science Center and Regional One Health cancer programs allowed for early access to life-changing care, novel therapies not available elsewhere, and expertise in cancer care not readily available anywhere else in the region. Physicians from Cleveland Clinic have come to Memphis for training, and patients have been referred from Ohio State University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and other institutions, for this care, Dr. Glazer says.
As a physician-scientist, Dr. Glazer and his team members are expanding access to cancer research and clinical trials. Dr. Glazer’s lab performs research on pancreatic cancer, studying how to alter the energy levels of cancer cells to block cancer spread. He is working with Wei Li, PhD, Distinguished Professor in the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences on drugs developed at UT Health Science Center to do this exact treatment with cancer patients at Regional One health.
“Our innovative work combining numerous UT Health Science Center areas of expertise and patients who come to ROH for advanced cancer care is a new phenomenon in the Mid-South.”
Dr. Evan Glazer
In addition, through the UT Health Science Center and Regional One partnership, Dr. Glazer and other faculty members are collaborating with multiple industry partners to identify proteins in the blood of patients at risk for pancreatic cancer and other patients with pancreatic cancer to develop tests to identify cancer before patients have symptoms.
“Our innovative work combining numerous UT Health Science Center areas of expertise and patients who come to ROH for advanced cancer care is a new phenomenon in the Mid-South,” Dr. Glazer said. “Our unique institutions, expertise, partnership, and patients offer research opportunities not available elsewhere.”
Dr. Glazer received his MD degree from George Washington University School of Medicine, completed a surgical residency at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and fellowships in complex general surgical oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center and surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
He is double board-certified in complex surgical oncology and general surgery. He specializes in the surgical treatment of liver, pancreatic, biliary, neuroendocrine, gastric, and gastrointestinal malignancies, including the use of minimally invasive procedures. He also cares for patients with complex benign biliary and pancreatic disorders, such as biliary strictures and chronic pancreatitis.
Dr. Glazer is a member of the Hepatobiliary Panel and Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. He recently completed service as chair of the Gastrointestinal Disease Site Working Group of the Society of Surgical Oncology. Additionally, he was recently named the program director for the Complex General Surgical Oncology Fellowship at UT Health Science Center.
His research has been published in journals including Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Surgical Oncology, Oncotarget, Cancer Control, and Surgery. He is the author of several book chapters on topics including liver cancer and hepatic resection. He has research funding from the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tracts and the National Institutes of Health.
“We are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Glazer as an outstanding UT Health Science Center faculty member dedicating his practice to Regional One Health,” said David Shibata, MD, chair of the UT Health Science Center Department of Surgery and executive director of the Regional One Health Cancer Program. “He is a prime example of the expertise and skill of the cancer physicians providing care at our growing center.”