Ross Cagan
Papers
2
Total Citations
145
H-Index
2
About
Ross Cagan is a pioneering cancer biologist whose work bridges basic developmental genetics and translational oncology. His research centers on using the fruit fly *Drosophila* as a platform for personalized cancer therapy, a field he helped establish. Cagan’s major contributions include developing high-throughput, robotics-based drug screening in flies to identify effective, patient-specific treatment combinations. His landmark 2019 paper (107 citations) demonstrated this approach by identifying trametinib plus zoledronate for a patient with KRAS-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer, leading to a strong partial response that lasted 11 months. He further validated the platform in a 2021 study (38 citations) for adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare and notoriously treatment-resistant salivary gland cancer. By leveraging *Drosophila* genetics to model human tumors, Cagan has created a rapid, cost-effective alternative to traditional mouse models, enabling personalized therapies for patients with limited options. His work has been recognized with awards including the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. For students and researchers, Cagan’s career exemplifies how fundamental model organism biology can be directly translated into life-saving clinical interventions.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
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