Ravi Salgia, M.D., Ph.D.

Translational Research in Upper Aerodigestive Tract Cancers

Research Summary

Dr. Salgia’s expertise is in the area of thoracic oncology, translational research and basic science research. His main research interest is to arrive at novel targeted therapeutics to enhance the quality of life and survival for patients with cancer. He and his lab have recently identified several novel receptor tyrosine kinases that are abnormal in lung cancer. He is an expert in signal transduction, as related to growth factor receptors and oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes, and is developing novel inhibitors based on these pathways. He is also an expert in tumor and body fluid biomarkers, and is applying this knowledge to develop new serum/tumor tissue tests for thoracic oncology.

Selected Papers

Salgia R, Li JL, Lo SH, Brunkhorst B, Kansas GS, Sobhany ES, Sun Y, Pisick E, Hallek M, Ernst T, Tantravahi R, Chen LB, Griffin JD. (1995). Molecular cloning of human paxillin, a focal adhesion protein phosphorylated by p210BCR/ABL. J Biol Chem 270:5039-5047.

Wang WL, Healy ME, Sattler M, Verma S, Lin J, Maulik G, Stiles CD, Griffin JD, Johnson BE, Salgia R. (2000). Growth inhibition and modulation of kinase pathways of small cell lung cancer cell lines by the novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI 571. Oncogene. 19(31): 3521-3528.

Salgia R, Lynch T, Skarin A, Lucca J, Lynch C, Jung K, Hodi FS, Jaklitsch M, Mentzer S, Swanson S, Lukanich J, Bueno R, Wain J, Mathiesen D, Wright C, Fidias P, Donahue D, Clift S, Hardy S, Neuberg D, Mulligan R, Webb I, Sugarbaker D, Mihm M, and Dranoff G. (2003). Vaccination with irradiated autologous tumor cells engineered to secrete granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor augments antitumor immunity in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung carcinoma. J Clin Oncol. 21(4): 624-630.


Ma PC, Kijima T, Maulik G, Fox EA, Sattler M, Griffin JD, Johnson BE, and Salgia R. (2003). c-MET mutational analysis in small cell lung cancer: novel juxtamembrane domain mutations regulating cytoskeletal functions. Cancer Research. 63(19): 6272-6281.

Sattler M, Pride YB, Ma P, Gramlich JL, Chu SC, Quinnan LA, Shirazian S, Liang C, Podar K, Christensen JG, Salgia R. (2003). A novel small molecule met inhibitor induces apoptosis in cells transformed by the oncogenic TPR-MET tyrosine kinase. Cancer Res. 63(17): 5462-9.