Johanns Appointed Medical Director of The Brain Tumor Center at Siteman

Tanner Johanns, MD, PhD, a board-certified Washington University medical oncologist, has been named medical director of The Brain Tumor Center at Siteman Cancer Center, based at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The Brain Tumor Center at Siteman is a multidisciplinary practice of WashU Medicine physicians and scientists whose mission is to provide leading-edge, patient-centric care for brain tumor patients while also developing transformative basic, translational and clinical research to develop new therapies and improve patient outcomes.

In the clinic, Johanns treats patients with primary brain tumors and brain metastases. As medical director, he will guide efforts to:

• Educate individuals about the potential of clinical trials and enroll interested patients in leading-edge studies that include investigational drugs, some of which are not available elsewhere.
• Develop and promote clinical trials initiated and led by innovative WashU Medicine investigators.
• Advance The Brain Tumor Center through the education of trainees, outreach to referring physicians and other efforts.

“Dr. Johanns is a national leader in the development of novel neuro-oncology trials, with specific expertise in the growing field of immunotherapy,” said Albert H. Kim, MD, PhD, director of The Brain Tumor Center at Siteman and the August A. Busch Jr. Professor of Neurosurgery at Washington University. “We are very fortunate to have someone like him on our leadership team.”

In addition to Kim and Johanns, other center leaders are scientific director Alexander Stegh, PhD, and clinical director Jiayi Huang, MD. Johanns also works in collaboration with Milan Chheda, MD, director of neuro-oncology at WashU Medicine and Siteman.

Stegh, who also is a professor of neurosurgery at WashU Medicine, called Johanns a leading physician-scientist.

“His research, dedicated to understanding immunotherapy resistance in brain tumors, bridges bench-to-bedside and bedside-to-bench research and drives innovation in brain cancer treatment,” Stegh said. “With Dr. Johanns as medical director of The Brain Tumor Center at Siteman, we will further drive the rapid clinical transition for novel therapeutic approaches developed in our laboratories.”

To make an appointment at the Brain Tumor Center, call 314-747-7222 or 800-600-3606, or visit www.siteman.wustl.edu.