.jpg "Vernon K. Sondak, MD photo")
Chair, Department of Cutaneous Oncology
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
VERNON K SONDAK MD is Chair of the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. He holds the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Distinguished Endowed Chair in Cutaneous Oncology there, and is Professor in the Departments of Oncologic Sciences and Surgery at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Since 2004, when he came to Tampa, the Moffitt Cutaneous Oncology Clinic has grown into one of the largest multidisciplinary treatment centers for melanoma and other skin cancers in the world, now seeing well over 2000 new patients each year. Dr. Sondak's research interests include surgical treatment of melanoma in adults and children; surgical treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma, DFSP and other cutaneous tumors; adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapy of melanoma; and evaluation of new therapies for patients with localized or disseminated melanoma. Dr. Sondak has been a leader in studies of surgical treatment of melanoma and other cutaneous malignancies, particularly in the application of sentinel lymph node biopsy and node dissection to the staging and treatment of melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma, and has been instrumental in training many surgical oncologists in these techniques over the years. Dr Sondak is the author or coauthor of over 480 articles in peer-reviewed publications, over 260 abstracts, and 8 books and 85 book chapters. He has served as a peer reviewer for virtually all of the most prestigious surgery, oncology and dermatology journals. He is also an Executive Board member of the Melanoma World Society, and a member of the Lancet Oncology International Advisory Board, as well as an external advisor to several SPORE grants at other US institutions.
Updated 1/23/2024