Robert F Gagel, M.D. served as the Head of Internal Medicine at the MD Anderson
Cancer Center, the leading United States Cancer Center, for 20 years, creating a
dynamic group of internal medicine subspecialists with broad expertise in cancer-related
medicine. He received his medical degree at Ohio State University and moved to
Boston to continue training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology. It was in Boston, at
Tufts and Harvard Universities, that he was chosen to manage a large kindred with a
newly discovered genetic syndrome, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type 2 (MEN2), in
which carriers of the gene develop medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC),
pheochromocytoma, and hyperparathyroidism. Working with other Tufts and Harvard
physicians, he pioneered techniques using serum calcitonin measurements to identify
MTC in its earliest stages and treat it by pediatric thyroidectomy. A 50-year follow-up of
these kindreds has established the efficacy of thyroidectomy – there have been no
MTC-related deaths in individuals treated with early thyroidectomy and this approach
has been widely adopted around the world.

Following his clinical training, he expanded his research expertise by completing a 4-
year postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health.
This experience set him on a lifetime course, working at the interface between clinical
medicine and basic research. He worked on the calcitonin gene, studying its molecular
regulation, alternative RNA processing, and physiologic function by applying molecular
techniques and knockout animal models. In 1981, he moved from Boston to Houston,
remaining for the next 40 years – 10 at Baylor College of Medicine and 30 at MD
Anderson Cancer Center. In addition to his administrative responsibilities as head of
Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders and, subsequently, as the Head of
Internal Medicine, he maintained a laboratory throughout his career that contributed
significantly to endocrine knowledge. For example, his group identified the cause for
persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy, inactivating mutations of the
sulfonylurea receptor, highlighting the important role of this gene in regulating insulin
secretion. Throughout his career, Dr. Gagel has contributed in meaningful ways to a
number of cancer-related disorders, including bone loss and osteoporosis, multiple
myeloma, and hypercalcemia of malignancy. But his focus has never strayed too far
from his first love – MEN2. He was active in the search for the gene that causes MEN2,
utilization of mutational analysis for directing medical treatment and the development of
small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of metastatic MTC. As one of
the lead phase 2 and 3 investigators of vandetanib for treatment of metastatic MTC, he
was selected to present these data to the United State FDA, a body of work that led to
the FDA approval. Although he retired at age 75 years, he remains active in the MEN2
community.
In his retirement, he enjoys summers at the beach on Martha’s Vineyard, cycling, and
snow skiing; he spends more than 30 days/year on the ski slopes in most years.