Pr. Shripad D. Banavali MD (Med; Bom), BC(Ped; USA)),BE(Hem-Onc; USA) Professor & Head, Department of Medical & Pediatric Oncology Dr. Ernest Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai - 400 012. INDIA

He did his MD in Internal Medicine in 1986 and underwent 3 years (1987-90) of Adult Oncology training at Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai under the able guidance of Dr S. H. Advani. During this period he wrote a research project on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia for which he got a Fellowship to work with Dr Harvey Priesler in Cincinati, USA. He spent nearly 3 years there, doing research on various aspects of leukemia and especially the CD 34 + hematogenic progenitor cells. In 1992, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, USA to work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital which is considered the “Mecca” of Pediatric Oncology. Here he did his Board Certification in Pediatrics and Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. After spending 8 years in USA, he came back and joined Tata Memorial Hospital.

At present he is head of the Department of Medical & Pediatric Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital. He has keen interest in leukemia cell biology, immunology, cell kinetics and Experimental Oncology. He has more than 200 scientific publications in various peer reviewed journals to his credit.

The most important challenge in cancer medicine in India is not finding a cure but developing effective and affordable therapies. Since accepting the helm of the medical oncology department in India’s largest and most advanced cancer hospital, Dr. Shripad Banavali has embraced a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment known as metronomic therapy. With this approach, well-proven chemotherapeutic agents are administered to patients at low doses at regular intervals over an extended period of time. The debilitating side effects of high-dose treatments are minimized and the treatment can be administered in smaller cancer centers with minimal supportive care.