Ranee Mehra, MD

B.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

M.D. New York University School of Medicine

Residency New York University

Fellowship Yale University

Dr. Ranee Mehra a Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Director of Head and Neck Medical Oncology and Solid Tumor Section Head at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.  She treats patients with upper aerodigestive cancers, in particular head and neck cancers, salivary gland cancers, thyroid cancers and thoracic malignancies. She is co-Chair of the UMMS system wide Chemotherapy Sub-Committee, co-Chair of the UMGCCC Clinical Research Committee, and is a member of the Fellowship Clinical Competency Committee.

Dr. Mehra is a graduate of the New York University School of Medicine and completed residency training in internal medicine at NYU.  She completed her fellowship in medical oncology at Yale University.  Her first academic appointment was at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA where she was actively engaged in clinical and translational research.  She subsequently joined Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, where she is Director of Head and Neck Medical Oncology and Co-Director of the Upper Aerodigestive Section.  She joined the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2018. 

Dr. Mehra’s research is focused on advancing therapies for patients with head and neck cancers and thoracic malignancies through the conduct of clinical trials.  She has been Principal Investigator for numerous clinical trials, including early phase studies.  She has a lead investigator in the Keynote-012 trial which led to the FDA approval of pembrolizumab for patients with advanced head and neck cancer.  She was also a lead investigator in the first in human trial LDK-378, ceritinib, which led to the FDA approval of this agent for advanced ALK+ NSCLC.   Currently, she works closely with basic science colleagues to better understand the biology of head and neck and thoracic malignancies.  Her current research efforts include conducting novel trials studying immunotherapy and targeted therapies for advanced disease.  She is also focused on efforts to de-intensify treatment for HPV positive oropharyngeal cancer.

Dr. Mehra has been actively involved in the ECOG-ACRIN head and neck committee and was medical oncology co-chair of the landmark E3311 trial, which studied risk adapted de-intensification of therapy for HPV positive patients who underwent transoral resection.  She is a member of the NCI Head and Neck Cancer Recurrent/Metastatic Task Force and was co-chair of the Locally Advanced committee for an NCI sponsored clinical trials meeting for TP53 Mutated Head and Neck Cancers.  She has been involved in medical education and has served as faculty on AHNS sponsored training workshops, as well as teaching at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  She is an author of the Head and Neck ASCO-SEP chapter and has received teaching awards by fellowship trainees at Fox Chase Cancer Center and the University of Maryland. 

Immunotherapy Targeted Therapies