Vikas Dudeja, MBBS, director of the Division of Surgical Oncology, has named Sushanth Reddy, M.D. (left), associate director of surgical oncology, Ashley Holder, M.D.(middle), section chief of melanoma and sarcoma surgery, and J. Bart Rose, III, M.D., MAS, FACS (right), the section chief of hepatopancreatobiliary disease.

Reddy, associate professor, joined UAB faculty in 2012. He also serves in the role of Associate Scientist in the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. An active clinician and researcher, Reddy’s focus is hepatopancreatobiliary surgery and the therapy and study of pancreatic cancers.

Holder joined UAB in 2020 as an assistant professor. Her clinical practice is directly linked to her research interests: the role of transport in cancer—from the effect of drug delivery on treatment response to the function of lymphatic transport in disease progression. She is exploring the lymphatic transport of immune cells between primary cutaneous melanoma and the sentinel nodal basin to understand how macrophages facilitate lymphatic metastasis.

Rose joined the UAB faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor. His focus since entering the field of surgery has been on biomarker research and mechanisms of cancer development in liver, pancreas, and bile ducts cancers (specifically neuroendocrine tumors). He has presented on novel uses of established biomarkers in pancreatic cancer, was the first to report on the clinical utility of a bile-based biomarker in patients with bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma), and is currently investigating new ways to treat neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas and GI tract.

Dudeja is pleased to have Reddy, Holder, and Rose stepping into these newly-appointed roles.

“All three of these faculty members have shown tremendous dedication to the division and to the field of surgical oncology,” said Dudeja. “We have an incredible team of physician-scientists in the UAB Division of Surgical Oncology, I look forward to seeing how each of these three leaders help the division grow.”

The Division of Surgical Oncology is focused on both treating and studying various abdominal, gastrointestinal, and soft tissue cancers using a multidisciplinary approach that seeks to personalize treatment for each patient.

Its team of surgical oncologists works closely with medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, geneticists, and many other disciplines within UAB Medicine to treat cancer in a holistic manner. By coordinating care around the biology of cancer, the division aims to individualize treatment plans supported by the best available evidence.

Faculty in the Division of Surgical Oncology provide specialized cancer care and conduct cutting-edge research in a number of locations, clinics and programs at UAB, including the Pancreatobiliary Disease Center and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB.