Prior to joining the Medical College, Dr. Evans was the Hamill Foundation Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is board-certified in surgery, and his clinical interests include treatment of pancreatic cancer and tumors of the endocrine system (thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal).

Dr. Evans’ research interests focus on translational laboratory research in the biology of pancreatic cancer and in clinical trial development for patients with localized disease. He has completed a number of investigator-initiated clinical trials, including a National Cancer Institute Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (NIH P20 SPORE) pancreatic cancer grant. At M. D. Anderson, his endocrine surgery group worked extensively on the genotype-phenotype correlations in multiple endocrine tumors and was the first to define the role for ultrasound in the preoperative management of patients with thyroid cancer.

Since joining MCW, he has forged the Program in Pancreatic Cancer Research including a clinical database, tissue bank, personalized cancer treatment clinical trial, and ongoing laboratory research.   He was twice awarded the Outstanding Teacher Award at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in 1995 and 2003. He also received the Faculty Achievement Award in Clinical Research in 1998. Dr. Evans is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the editorial boards of Surgery and the American Journal of Surgery, and is Editor of the Pancreatic Tumors Section of the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

He served on the editorial board for the seventh edition of the AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer), Cancer Staging Manual, and chaired the committee that revised the staging system for pancreatic cancer. He has served on various national medical advisory committees and has worked extensively with patient advocacy groups including the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) and the Lustgarten Foundation.  In 2013 and 2014, Dr. Evans served as the Chair of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network-American Association for Cancer Research Acceleration Network Grants Scientific Review Committee.

He has authored or co-authored 275 journal articles and has edited seven books. He has delivered more than 50 invited lectureships nationally, most recently at Harvard Medical School, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, University of Iowa, and the University of California, Davis Medical Center, amongst others. He has also been invited to present his research findings at international meetings in New Zealand, Belgium, France, Sweden, Japan, and elsewhere. He was awarded an American College of Surgeons Traveling Fellowship in 1999.

For more information, visit the MCW Surgery Department website.