PHILADELPHIA – The members of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) have elected Keith T. Flaherty, MD, Fellow of the AACR Academy, as the AACR President-Elect for 2025-2026. Flaherty will become President-Elect on Monday, April 28, during the AACR’s Annual Business Meeting of Members at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025 in Chicago, Illinois and will assume the Presidency in April 2026 at the AACR Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.
Flaherty is director of clinical cancer research and the Richard Saltonstall Endowed Chair in Oncology at Mass General Cancer Center, a founding member of Mass General Brigham. He is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Flaherty’s career has focused on understanding the molecular and clinical consequences of inhibiting oncogenic pathways in melanoma while establishing therapeutic approaches and constructing rational combinatorial therapies for the treatment of this disease. He has pioneered the development of targeted therapies matched to the genetic characteristics of a patient's tumor and led early clinical trials testing vemurafenib and other therapeutic agents for the treatment of melanoma. Through his work, Flaherty has translated discoveries about the BRAF V600E somatic mutation in cancer into effective therapies, including the FDA-approved combination targeted therapy regimens for melanoma.
As the AACR’s next President-Elect, Flaherty will work with the Officers and Directors of the AACR Board and the AACR membership at large, which includes more than 58,000 members in 141 countries and territories, to further the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure all cancers through research, education, communication, collaboration, science policy and advocacy, and funding for cancer research.
“It is the singular greatest honor of my career to be elected to serve the AACR and its membership in this capacity,” said Flaherty. “During my tenure, I hope to redouble our efforts to bridge cutting-edge discovery science with clinical translation by virtue of career development and mentorship of the next generation of translational investigators, particularly those aiming to address the needs of underserved populations.”
“Dr. Flaherty’s remarkable work in developing targeted therapies for the treatment of melanoma has had an incredible impact on the field,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “Additionally, he is a dedicated and supportive mentor to the next generation of cancer investigators. We are truly thankful for his exceptional years of service and dedication to the AACR. The organization and its global membership will thrive under his sage leadership. We heartily congratulate Dr. Flaherty on being elected as the AACR’s 2025-2026 President-Elect and look forward to working with him in the years to come.”
Flaherty has been a member of the AACR since 2001 and was elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2023. He served with distinction on the AACR’s Board of Directors from 2019 to 2022. Flaherty provides important guidance as a current member of the Fellows of the AACR Academy Nominating Committee (2024-present), the AACR Clinical Trials Advisory Council (2023-present), the AACR Exploratory IND/Phase 0 Clinical Trials Task Force (2021-present), and the AACR Project GENIE External Advisory Board (2015-present). He is a former member of the AACR COVID-19 and Cancer Task Force (2020-2022), the AACR Publications Committee (2014-2017), and the AACR NextGen Grants for Transformative Cancer Research Review Committee (2015).
Flaherty has played a critical role in shaping the AACR Annual Meetings by serving as chair (2023-2024), vice chair (2020-2021), and cochair (2012-2013, 2010) of the Annual Meeting Program Committee. He was a member of the Annual Meeting Clinical Trials Committee (2018-2020, 2016-2018, 2012-2013) and chair of the Clinical Trials and Clinical Pharmacology Section of the Annual Meeting Program Committee (2013). He has also helped to guide other AACR scientific conferences and workshops by serving as a member of the AACR Virtual Conference: COVID-19 and Cancer Program Committee (2020), a faculty member of the AACR Clinical Trial Design Part 1: Clinical Trial Design for Targeted Therapies Workshop (2018), and chair of the AACR Special Conference on Translational Cancer Medicine (2010).
In addition, Flaherty previously served as the editor-in-chief (2016-2025) and senior editor (2010-2016) of the AACR journal Clinical Cancer Research. He has also served as scientific editor for the AACR journal Cancer Discovery (2010-2017).
Flaherty has been honored with numerous awards throughout his career, most notably the OncLive Giants of Cancer Care Award for Melanoma (2020), the Society for Melanoma Research Lifetime Achievement Award (2019), the National Cancer Institute Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Lectureship and Award (2015), the Mass General Cancer Center Harrison Clinical Research Award (2013), and the Peter Fink Memorial Lectureship (2013).
Flaherty earned his undergraduate degree in neurobiology at Yale University and his medical degree at Johns Hopkins University.
Newly Elected AACR Treasurer and Members of the AACR Board of Directors
The members of the AACR have also elected a Treasurer and five individuals to serve on the AACR Board of Directors for the 2025-2028 term:
AACR Treasurer
Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, FAACR, is a professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute. Caligiuri served as Treasurer-Elect from 2022 to 2025 and President of the AACR from 2017 to 2018. [Photo]
AACR Board of Directors
Johann S. de Bono, MD, PhD, is the Regius Professor of Cancer Research, professor in experimental cancer medicine, and honorary consultant medical oncologist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, where he is also the director of the Drug Development Unit and head of the Prostate Cancer Targeted Therapy Group. [Photo]
Mikala Egeblad, PhD, is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Tumor Microenvironment and a member of the Convergence Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She is also associate director of the Giovanis Institute for Translational Cell Biology and coleader of the Cancer Invasion and Metastasis Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. [Photo]
Crystal L. Mackall, MD, FAACR, is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy. [Photo]
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhD, is the director of the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center and executive vice president of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. [Photo]
Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, is the Ransom Horne, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is also vice president and head of clinical development in the Therapeutics Discovery Division and associate director of translational research in the Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy. [Photo]
