Professor of Surgery and Oncology and Dermatology
Director, Clinical Trials and Outcomes Research Office, Department of Surgery
Deputy Director, Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research

Dr. Charles M. Balch leads a distinguished career as a clinical and academic surgical oncologist and a leading authority in both melanoma and breast cancer. As revered teacher, astute administrator, and world-renowned speaker, he continues to build networks in the field of clinical trials and outcomes research. Over the past 30 years he has authored over 600 publications on topics such as, clinical investigations involving the natural history of melanoma, prognostic factors predicting clinical outcomes, standards of surgical treatment, and the conduct and methodology of clinical research and immunology. Dr Balch is generally regarded as one of the leading melanoma experts in the world. He is the editor of Cutaneous Melanoma, regarded as the authoritative textbook on melanoma, now in its 5th edition. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Surgical Oncology and is Chair of the Melanoma Staging Committee of the AJCC.

Dr. Balch has over 30 years of experience in breast cancer management and research. He has multiple publications with scientific articles and book chapters involving the multidisciplinary and surgical management of breast diseases. His clinical trials leadership in breast cancer in the 1980s and 1990s included the only randomized surgical trial comparing radial vs. modified radical mastectomy, as well as the early development of skin-sparing mastectomy and immediate breast construction; two major advances at the time which contributed to the evolution of breast surgery. He was also one of the early pioneers on developing the sentinel lymph node biopsy in the staging of breast cancer, especially in breast cancer patients who had received pre-operative chemotherapy. Dr Balch was the founding editor of Breast Diseases, which is now in its eighteenth year of publication.

Prior to coming to Johns Hopkins, Dr. Balch held major leadership roles involving clinical research in three comprehensive cancer centers (UAB, M D Anderson, and City of Hope). He has been a Principle Investigator or Co-PI of numerous clinical trials, including 10 phase III trials, most of which were NCI-funded National Phase III trials. Dr. Balch's leadership roles have involved the Society of Surgical Oncology (President), the American Board of Surgery (Board of Directors), the Association of Academic Surgeons (President) and the Commission on Cancer (Chair, Board of Directors) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (Executive Committee).

Award for outstanding achievement in clinical research from the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

Mehran Habibi, M.D., M.B.A., assistant professor of surgery andoncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, earned amedical degree from Azad University in Tehran, Iran. He received generalsurgical training at St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and is board certified in general surgery. He completed his fellowship in surgical oncology and Master of Business Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University. Habibi's work has been published in several medical journals, including "American Journal of Oncology Review", "Breast Cancer Research & Treatment" and "The American Surgeon". His area of interest is the management of benign and malignant diseases of the breast with research in Breast Cancer Immunotherapy. He is theco-director of Johns Hopkins cancer surgery second opinion program and Cancer liaison physician at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Dr. Jacobs joined the Breast Center surgical oncology faculty in March 2004. She was previously an Assistant Professor of Surgery at University of Missouri School of Medicine, where she also went to undergraduate school(1982-1986) and medical school(1988-1992). Her internship was conducted at George Washington University during 1992 and 1993. She also did her residency there in the Dept of Surgery along with a research fellowship which was completed in 1996. Her Surgical Oncology fellowship was done at the University of Illinois from 1998-2000. She joins us as an Assistant Professor of Surgical Oncology specializing in breast cancer and melanoma. She also has taken a leadership role regarding clinical research trials for the surgical division of the breast center.

Dr. Lange joined the Department of surgery at Johns Hopkins in 1994. She is a surgical oncologist with a special interest in breast cancer and melanoma. Her particular research interests are in the surgical staging of patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer or melanoma. She received her MD. degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She finished her surgical training at Yale-New Haven Hospital and served as a Clinical Associate at the National Cancer Institute on the NIH. She is board certified in general surgery.

Dr. Tsangaris joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in March 2002 as the Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center and the Chief of Breast Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology. He earned his BA at Wake Forest University in 1979, was awarded his MD degree at George Washington University School of Medicine in 1983, completed his General Surgery Residency at George Washington University in Washington, DC, Surgical Breast Oncology Fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, 1990 and attended Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard School of Medicine during the summer of 1994, where he completed their educational program in Clinical Effectiveness. An accomplished surgical oncologist who specializes in breast cancer, he has held several leadership positions prior to joining the Johns Hopkins faculty. These include; Assistant Professor and Acting Chief of Breast Surgery at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York in 1990-1992. Visiting Surgical Consultant for the Saudi-US University Project for King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Saudi Arabia in 1995-1997. Director, Student Clerkships in the Department of Surgery at George Washington University Medical Center also during 1995-1997, and Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of the Breast Cancer Center at George Washington University fro 1993-1997. Most recently, from 1997 to February 2002, prior to joining the Johns Hopkins faculty, he was the Director of Breast Surgical Services and Associate Professor of Surgery at Lombardi Cancer Center at the Georgetown University's Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Tsangaris joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in March 2002 as a nationally renowned breast surgical oncologist with expertise in surgical management as well as a breadth of knowledge and experience in clinical research in the field of breast cancer.