After a 20 year faculty career at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Russell Broaddus moved to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill in September, 2019, to be the new Chairman of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. He holds the Joe W. and Evelyn Grisham Distinguished Professorship.   He is a surgical pathologist with sub-specialty expertise in gynecologic pathology and solid tumor molecular diagnostics. His research lab focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of endometrial cancer, the most common gynecologic cancer in the Western world. Current projects include developing molecular diagnostics for predicting endometrial cancer histotype and stage, developing clinical and lab-based algorithms for the identification of patients with hereditary endometrial cancer (Lynch Syndrome), discovering novel molecular mediators of endometrial cancer invasion and metastasis, and identifying novel signaling pathways important in the pathogenesis of endometrial cancer. Dr. Broaddus was one of two Principal Investigators for the NCI-funded Endometrial Cancer Sponsored Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) at MD Anderson, leading one project and the pathology core.  He also has many years of experience in  leading  the Ovarian Cancer SPORE Pathology Core.  Education is a priority with Dr. Broaddus.  He was awarded the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award twice (2005-2006 and 2016-2017) from the MD Anderson Cancer Center/UT Health Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. This award is especially meaningful, because it is voted on by the students.  In 2018, he was also awarded the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teacher Award, the highest educational award in the University of Texas System.   

At a national level, Dr. Broaddus recently served as the Chair of the College of American Pathologists evidence-based guideline committee that examined Mismatch Repair and Microsatellite Instability Testing for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy.  This evidence-based guideline was published in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and affirmed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.