Professor of Medicine

Chief, CML Section

Department of Leukemia

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston, Texas

Jorge Cortes, MD, is deputy chair and professor of medicine in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Texas where he directs the CML Program. Dr. Cortes received his medical degree in 1986 from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, and has been at MD Anderson Cancer Center since 1991.  Dr. Cortes, whose clinical interest focus on new drug development and the management of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, acute and chronic leukemias, and myeloproliferative disorders has authored over 400 peer-reviewed medical publications.  He has received numerous awards including the Faculty Scholar Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2003, the Annual Celgene Young Investigator Achievement Award for Clinical Research in Hematology in 2005, The Dr. John J. Kenny Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2006, the Service to Mankind Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2007, and the Otis W. and Pearl L. Walters Faculty Achievement Award in Clinical Research from MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2007. Dr. Cortes is chief editor of Current Hematological Malignancies Reports and Clinical Leukemia and serves in the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, Clinical Cancer Research, Leukemia and Lymphoma and the American Journal of Hematology.

Francisco Cervantes

Francisco Cervantes is senior consultant at the Hematology Department of the Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, Spain, and associate professor at the University of Barcelona. His main scientific interest is the study of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and the Ph-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), mainly their natural history, prognosis, biology, and treatment. As a result of the activity in this field, he has published more than 190 articles in peer-review international journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, British Journal of Haematology, Experimental Hematology, Haematologica, Cancer, Oncogene, Seminars in Oncology, and the European Journal of Haematology. In the CML field,Dr. Cervantes contributed to the elaboration of Sokal’s score, is a coauthor of the publications of the IRIS study, which established imatinib as first-line treatment for CML, has participated in the introduction of the second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors for patients resistant to imatinib, as well as in the authorship of the European LeukemiaNet recommendations for the treatment of CML. His more recent contributions in the field of the MPNs have been the elaboration of the new prognostic classification of primary myelofibrosis on behalf of the International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Research and Treatment, as well as several studies on the role of leukocyte and platelet activation in the thrombosis of MPN patients. At local level, he is the national coordinator of the CML studies within the collaborative PETHEMA Spanish group. Dr Cervantes is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the European Hematology Association, the International Working Group for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research and Treatment, the European Leukemianet, and the Spanish Society of Hematology.