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Neil Desai, M.D.

Neil Desai, M.D.

Director of Clinical Research, Radiation Oncology

Associate Professor

Endowed Title
Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care
School
Medical School
Department
Radiation Oncology

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For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile.

  • Biography

    Neil Desai, M.D., M.H.S., is an Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Certified by the American Board of Radiology, he joined UT Southwestern in 2015. He is Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology.

    Dr. Desai holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Dartmouth College and earned his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he also obtained advanced training through a research fellowship program where he studied the impact of genetic alterations in the DNA damage response on the success of bladder-preserving chemoradiation for bladder cancer.

    At UT Southwestern, Dr. Desai develops and participates in clinical trials designed to improve treatments for patients with genitourinary cancer, including those of the prostate and bladder. He is the principal investigator of several studies, including nationally accruing studies, and he leads the Department’s Biomarker Tissue Collection program. 

    Dr. Desai has been the recipient of numerous awards, including selection as a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care.

  • Education
    Medical School
    Yale University School of Medicine (2010)
    Internship
    Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (2011), Transitional Year
    Residency
    Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (2015), Radiation Oncology
  • Research Interest
    • Bladder cancer - novel approaches to bladder preservation
    • Prostate cancer - genomic risk stratified treatment, sexual function after treatment, and imaging response-based treatment intensity selection
  • Publications
    Deep learning based automatic segmentation of the Internal Pudendal Artery in definitive radiotherapy treatment planning of localized prostate cancer
    Balagopal A, Dohopolski M, Suk Kwon Y, Montalvo S, Morgan H, Bai T, Nguyen D, Liang X, Zhong X, Lin MH, Desai N, Jiang S Physics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology 2024 Apr 30
    Prostate Cancer, Version 3.2024 Featured Updates to the NCCN Guidelines
    Schaeffer EM, Srinivas S, Adra N, An Y, Bitting R, Chapin B, Cheng HH, D’Amico AV, Desai N, Dorff T, Eastham JA, Farrington TA, Gao X, Gupta S, Guzzo T, Ippolito JE, Karnes RJ, Kuettel MR, Lang JM, Lotan T, McKay RR, Morgan T, Pow-Sang JM, Reiter R, Roach M, Robin T, Rosenfeld S, Shabsigh A, Spratt D, Szmulewitz R, Teply BA, Tward J, Valicenti R, Wong JK, Snedeker J, Freedman-Cass DA JNCCN Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 2024 Apr 22 140-150
    Simulation and pre-planning omitted radiotherapy (SPORT): a feasibility study for prostate cancer
    Zhuang T, Parsons D, Desai N, Gibbard G, Keilty D, Lin MH, Cai B, Nguyen D, Chiu T, Godley A, Pompos A, Jiang S Biomedical Physics and Engineering Express 2024 Mar 10
    Radioactive Iodine Therapy in Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: An Update on Dose Recommendations and Risk of Secondary Primary Malignancies
    Nguyen NC, Anigati EM, Desai NB, Öz OK Seminars in Nuclear Medicine 2024
    Bony structure enhanced synthetic CT generation using Dixon sequences for pelvis MR-only radiotherapy
    Liang X, Yen A, Bai T, Godley A, Shen C, Wu J, Meng B, Lin MH, Medin P, Yan Y, Owrangi A, Desai N, Hannan R, Garant A, Jiang S, Deng J Medical physics 2023 Dec 50 7368-7382
    Prostate Cancer, Version 4.2023
    Schaeffer EM, Srinivas S, Adra N, An Y, Barocas D, Bitting R, Bryce A, Chapin B, Cheng HH, D’Amico AV, Desai N, Dorff T, Eastham JA, Farrington TA, Gao X, Gupta S, Guzzo T, Ippolito JE, Kuettel MR, Lang JM, Lotan T, McKay RR, Morgan T, Netto G, Pow-Sang JM, Reiter R, Roach M, Robin T, Rosenfeld S, Shabsigh A, Spratt D, Teply BA, Tward J, Valicenti R, Wong JK, Shead DA, Snedeker J, Freedman-Cass DA JNCCN Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 2023 Oct 21 1067-1096
    Organ sparing treatment for penile cancer using a 3D-printed high-dose-rate brachytherapy applicator
    Lee HH, Chiu TD, Hrycushko B, Xiong Z, Hudak S, Woldu S, Mauck R, Corwin T, Meng X, Margulis V, Desai N, Folkert MR, Garant A Brachytherapy 2023 Sep 22 580-585
    Passing the Kool-Aid Point: mRNA Expression–Based Risk Classifiers in Localized Prostate Cancer Treatment Decision Making
    Desai NB, Dal Pra A, Chua ML, Berlin A International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 2023 Jul 116 530-532
    Quality Metric to Assess Adequacy of Hydrogel Rectal Spacer Placement for Prostate Radiation Therapy and Association of Metric Score With Rectal Toxicity Outcomes
    Grossman CE, Folkert MR, Lobaugh S, Desai NB, Kollmeier MA, Gorovets D, McBride SM, Timmerman RD, Zhang Z, Zelefsky MJ Advances in Radiation Oncology 2023 Jul 8
    Preliminary Evaluation of PTV Margins for Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy of the Prostatic Fossa
    Morgan HE, Wang K, Yan Y, Desai N, Hannan R, Chambers E, Cai B, Lin MH, Sher DJ, Wang J, Wang AZ, Jiang S, Timmerman R, Park C“, Garant A Practical Radiation Oncology 2023 Jul 13 e345-e353
  • Honors & Awards
    • Rising Star Award
      Leaders in Clinical Excellence Program (2020)
    • Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO)
      Educator of the Year Award (2019)
    • American Brachytherapy Society (ABS)
      Prostate Brachytherapy Workshop Scholar (2018)
    • Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care
      (2018)
  • Professional Associations/Affiliations
    • American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) (2017)
    • American College of Radiology (ACR) (2011)
    • American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) (2011)
    • American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (2011)
    • International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) (2018)