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Chandrajit P. Raut, MD, MSc, Awarded a $3.6M National Institutes of Health Grant

Dr. Raut has been awarded a $3.6M NIH grant for the study, “Supratherapeutic Paclitaxel Buttresses Reduce Locoregional Recurrence Rates Following Surgery for Soft Tissue Sarcomas.”

This study will evaluate investigator-designed, biphasic chemotherapy-loaded polymer films to determine if early, but not burst, release of physically entrapped paclitaxel followed by extended release of covalently-bound paclitaxel (1) will reduce locoregional rates and extend survival in patient-derived liposarcoma and leiomyosarcoma xenograft surgical models and (2) safely deliver drug locoregionally, achieving high local tissue drug levels with minimal systemic delivery when implanted in situ. This grant is a successor to a prior R01 by the same investigators.

Chandrajit P. Raut, MD, MSc
Chief, Division of Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
BWH Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director, Center for Sarcoma and Bone Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Raut is a committed clinician who specializes in the multidisciplinary care of patients with soft tissue sarcoma. He is also a prolific researcher and has a multi-PI R01 grant to evaluate an innovative drug-eluting film to be placed in the surgical bed and reduce tumor local recurrence rates. Additionally, he was co-PI on a multi-institutional phase II clinical trial evaluating five years of adjuvant imatinib for primary gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), co-investigator on an international phase III randomized clinical trial evaluating the use of preoperative radiation therapy for retroperitoneal sarcomas and a member of The Cancer Genome Atlas Sarcoma (TCGA-SARC) working group of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Dr. Raut serves as section editor for sarcoma in the journals Cancer and Annals of Surgical Oncology, associate editor for the journal Sarcoma and editorial board member for the journal ACS Case Reports in Surgery. He has authored over 210 papers and over 30 book chapters.

Dr. Raut is a graduate of Stanford University (BA/BS), University of Oxford (MSc) and Harvard Medical School (MD). He completed a residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a fellowship in surgical oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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In Memoriam – Robert T. Osteen, MD

1941-2022

Brigham and Women’s Hospital mourns the loss of Robert Osteen, MD, a cancer surgeon and educator whose contributions to the field of surgical oncology influenced generations of surgeons. He died July 14 from complications following a recent injury. He was 81.

With a remarkable tenure spanning almost 50 years at the Brigham, Dr. Osteen established himself as a leading expert in surgery for tumors of the pancreas, liver, stomach, esophagus, colon, breast and other organs. Throughout his career, he served as an influential and beloved surgeon, teacher and mentor. Gifted with a sharp mind, colleagues frequently consulted Dr. Osteen for clinical guidance. Although he retired from clinical practice in 2006, he remained engaged in the instruction and mentorship of students and trainees.

Colleagues remember Dr. Osteen not only as a great surgeon but also a great teacher — one who inspired others both personally and professionally with his guidance and wisdom. In recognition of his lasting influence on surgical education, the Department of Surgery established a Junior Faculty Fellowship Award in his honor in 2006.

In retirement, Dr. Osteen delved into his interests of history and poetry. A lover of maps and sailing, he collected many antique maps. He wrote his first book in 2014, Festina Lente: Charting the Mediterranean 1814-1824, about William Henry Smyth’s charting of the Mediterranean. He dove into the experience, even learning the 1850 method for measuring longitude between the moon and fixed star. In 2021, he finished his second book, Surgery Under Fire, outlining his father’s experience as an anesthesiologist in WWII based on over 300 letters written to his wife. Dr. Osteen collected his own poetry, written over 50 odd years, in a book entitled, Zero to Five Knots and a Book, which focused on his loves of sailing, children, nature and his wife.

Dr. Osteen is survived by his wife of 58 years, Carolyn McCue Osteen; two daughters, Carolyn (Morey) Osteen Ward and Sarah Lloyd Osteen; and four grandchildren.

Dr. Osteen was born in Augusta, Georgia on February 14, 1941, and grew up in Savannah, Georgia. He graduated from Dartmouth College and Duke University Medical School and served in the U.S.A.F. from 1968-1970, primarily engaging in medical research focused on transplant surgery. In 1974, he completed his surgical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, now Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he spent his entire career.

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Welcoming New Faculty – Filipe La Fuente de Carvalho, MD, PhD

Please join us in welcoming Filipe La Fuente de Carvalho, MD, PhD, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Filipe La Fuente de Carvalho, MD, PhD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Urology

Dr. de Carvalho received his medical degree from the University of Porto School of Medicine in Portugal. He completed residency training in general surgery and urology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and a urology residency at Centro Hospitalar do Porto, Portugal. He was a postdoctoral fellow and holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Most recently, he completed the Combined Harvard Program in Urologic Oncology at Mass General Hospital and the Brigham.

Dr. de Carvalho’s research interests integrate genomic and transcriptomic data with pre-clinical models to define molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and resistance to therapy, with a particular focus on bladder cancer. Dr. de Carvalho has been recognized as a Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Young Investigator and a Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Foundation Faculty Research Fellow. He is also the recipient of an Early-Career Investigator Award by the American Urological Association (AUA) Research Forum.