Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab

Tanios S. Bekaii-Saab, MD, FACP is Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Gastrointestinal Cancer at Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He is a leading expert in gastrointestinal malignancies with particular expertise in BRAF-mutated colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and the development of novel targeted therapies. Dr. Bekaii-Saab is best known for his leadership of the BEACON CRC trial, which evaluated the triplet combination of encorafenib (BRAF inhibitor), binimetinib (MEK inhibitor), and cetuximab (anti-EGFR) versus standard therapy in patients with BRAF V600E-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019, BEACON established encorafenib plus cetuximab as the standard of care for BRAF V600E-mutated mCRC, a subtype associated with particularly poor prognosis, representing a major advance in targeted therapy for this previously difficult-to-treat population. He has also contributed significantly to the understanding of molecular subtypes of colorectal and pancreatic cancers, led multiple practice-changing clinical trials, and trained a generation of GI oncologists. Dr. Bekaii-Saab has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the editorial boards of leading oncology journals.