Cutting-Edge Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

Guest Bio: Madappa Kundranda, MD, PhD

A medical oncologist with Western Regional Medical Center (Western), Dr. Madappa Kundranda, PhD, joined Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) in August 2012. His main focus is on patients with gastrointestinal cancers, but he also treats a variety of other types of advanced-stage and complex cancers.

Dr. Kundranda obtained his medical degree from Bangalore University in India, before earning a PhD in cancer biology from Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Dr. Kundranda next completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Fairview Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic Hospital. He then finished a hematology/oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ.

Originally, Dr. Kundranda had planned to earn a PhD in neuroscience after medical school. However, after his first cancer biology course, he was intrigued by the rapid innovations in clinical methodologies and how research was influencing the field of cancer medicine. When his father was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003, Dr. Kundranda also started paying attention to the way that patients and caregivers felt about the treatment process, and how important it is for physicians to focus on maintaining the patient's quality of life while going through treatment.

Dr. Kundranda is a member of numerous associations, including American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Society for Hematology (ASH). He has given presentations on various cancer topics throughout his career at conferences such as the AACR Annual Meetings and ASCO Annual Meetings. He has also published numerous scientific peer-reviewed papers, abstracts and book chapters.