Mark Zafereo

Dr. Mark Zafereo is a Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where he is Section Chief of Head and Neck Endocrine Surgery and Associate Medical Director of the Head & Neck Center. Dr. Zafereo serves as Treasurer of the American Thyroid Association, and on the American Head & Neck Society Research and Education Foundation Board of Trustees. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and the International Thyroid Oncology Group. Dr. Zafereo leads several national multicenter clinical trials on neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery for advanced differentiated, medullary, and anaplastic thyroid cancers. He has published significantly on Thyroid and other Head & Neck cancers, speaking nationally and internationally. His clinical practice focuses on patients afflicted with thyroid cancer and parathyroid neoplasms.


Sessions

09-10
09:00
60min
PAN AMERICAN PANEL: Treatment approaches in laryngeal cancer
Rogerio A. Dedivitis, Mark Zafereo, Luiz P. Kowalski, Alirio Mijares, Gabriel Damiano
Head and Neck Oncology
Head & Neck Surgery 1
09-10
10:45
60min
Thyroid Surgery 2026: a joint session from the World Congress on Thyroid Cancer and the AHNS- Endocrine Section
Gregory W. Randolph, Marika Russell, Jatin Shah, Mark Zafereo, Hisham Mehanna, Kursat Gokcan, Kyung Tae, Che-Wei Wu, Giuseppe Mercante, Luiz P. Kowalski
Head and Neck Oncology
Head & Neck Surgery 1
09-10
15:00
60min
Head and Neck cancer: how to manage depending on resource availability?
Melek Kezban Gürbüz, Manole Felicia, Koichi Omori, Mark Zafereo, Johannes Fagan, Nicolas Fakhri

Head and Neck cancer: how to manage depending on resource availability? will be discussed.

Global Outreach (Regional or ENT related Organizations Symposia)
Humanitarian + Transverse Activities + Global Outreach
09-11
12:15
30min
Targeted Therapy in the Management of Thyroid Cancer
Mark Zafereo
Yo-IFOS (Young IFOS)
Young IFOS 1
09-12
14:00
60min
American Academy of Otolaryngology: New technologies, advances and treatment strategies in Head and Neck Cancer
Wojciech Mydlarz, Mark Zafereo, Melina Windon, Jamie Ku

Head and neck cancer is a common yet aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis, particularly when diagnosed at advanced stages. Despite progress in surgical, chemotherapeutic, and radiotherapeutic interventions, overall disease control and patient survival rates remains low due to high rates of recurrence and therapeutic resistance. Head and neck cancer continues to be a challenging disease and many efforts across the world are in process to help diagnose, treat, manage and surveil this disease and the patients it affects. Advances in therapeutics and new technologies continue to be developed and utilized in management of this challenging disease. Neoadjuvant and adjuvant immunotherapy prior to standard of care treatment has shown promising advances in response and overall control of disease in both mucosal, cutaneous and endocrine cancers. Artificial intelligence technology is opening new opportunities for complex data analysis and advances in translational and clinical care of patients. Advances in optical imaging technology is helping identification of cancer. Novel approaches to surgical planning and treatment are extending treatment possibilities with less morbidity and improved outcomes. This panel of experts will discuss new technologies, advances and treatment strategies in head & neck cancer. Speakers and panel discussion will focus and update on important topics in head and neck cancer:

Faculty Roster for Head & Neck Oncology American Academy of Otolaryngology Panel Symposia:

Wojciech Mydlarz MD

Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

 

Clint Allen MD

Center for Cancer Research/National Cancer Institute

National Institute of Health

 

Nicole Schmitt MD

Winship Cancer Institute

Emory University School of Medicine

 

Steven Chinn MD, MPH

Hillman Cancer Center

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

 

Mark Zafereo MD

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

 

Jaime Ku MD

Head and Neck Institute

Cleveland Clinic 

 

Eleni Rettig MD

Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Harvard Medical School

 

Melina Windon MD

Markey Cancer Center

University of Kentucky School of Medicine

- Advances in head and neck cancer detection, and surveillance

- Advances and management updates in head and neck cancer

- Novel approaches open and endoscopic approaches to head and neck tumors

- Targeted therapy and immunotherapy combined with surgery for advanced thyroid cancer

- Translation applications of Artificial Intelligence in head and neck cancer

Head and Neck Oncology
Head & Neck Surgery 1