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Lalitha K. Shankar, MD, PhD

Chief, Clinical Trials Branch

Lalitha K. Shankar, MD, PhD

Lalitha K. Shankar, MD, PhD, is at the Cancer Imaging Program at the National Cancer Institute, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Since joining NCI in 2003, she has served as an Advisor to the Associate Director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis. She is the Chief of the Clinical Trials Branch at the Cancer Imaging Program. Her research interests have been both in the role of functional and molecular imaging in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, as well as evaluating the performance characteristics of imaging modalities for optimal use in the management of the cancer patient. Her work involves establishment of and monitoring of clinical trials to evaluate imaging tracers and techniques, which aim to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. She provides imaging expertise for ongoing trials of cancer therapeutics sponsored by NCI in the NCTN and NCORP. She has served on the RECIST Committee since 2006 and is the Chair of the RECIST PET Working Group and a member of the RECIST Steering Committee and the EORTC Imaging Committee. She has served on FDA’s Medical Imaging Drug Advisory Committee. She serves on the advisory committees of several trans-European biomarker initiatives. She is the recipient of several NIH and NCI Director Awards.

Dr. Lalitha K. Shankar received her medical degree in Bangalore University, India and received her MS and PhD in Radiation Sciences at Hahnemann University, Philadelphia. She then trained in clinical Nuclear Medicine and completed fellowships in Positron Emission Tomography and Radio-immunodiagnosis and radio-immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to joining the National Cancer Institute, she was a faculty member in the Department of Radiology at Georgetown University and at the Lombardi Cancer Center and also worked in the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Washington Hospital Center — both in Washington, DC.