George Demetri, MD

Dr. Demetri received his A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and M.D. from Stanford University, followed by internal medicine residency and Chief Residency at the University of Washington, Seattle and medical oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. His career as a physician-scientist has focused on discovering and developing precision cancer therapies to target specific oncogenic mechanisms in molecularly-defined subsets of cancers, with a focus on rare sarcomas and other ultra-rare cancers. He led the research and development of imatinib (Glivec®) to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as the paradigm of a mutation-driven solid tumor.  Subsequently, he designed and led the worldwide development of both sunitinib and regorafenib for GIST after resistance to imatinib. He also played key roles in developing other therapeutic agents, including trabectedin (Yondelis®), pazopanib (Votrient®), avapritinib (Ayvakit®), vemurafenib (Zelboraf®), and tazemetostat (Tazverik®). Based on his contributions, Dr. Demetri was awarded the 2020 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) as well as the 2023 J.E. Wallace Sterling Lifetime Achievement Award in Medicine from the Stanford Medicine Alumni Association. In addition to scientific advisory roles for several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies worldwide, Dr. Demetri also co-founded IDRx, a biotechnology company acquired by GSK in 2025 to develop transformational therapeutic strategies in GIST.   He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and as past Chair of the AACR Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee.