Cancer Surgeon Ashwani Rajput Named Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center for the National Capital Region

Ashwani Rajput, MD

Ashwani Rajput, MD, a cancer surgeon and researcher with a special interest in health care disparities, has been appointed director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins for the Washington, D.C., region. Recruited during a national search, Rajput assumed his new role Nov. 1 and will be based at Sibley Memorial Hospital.

Rajput joins Johns Hopkins from the University of New Mexico (UNM), where he served as the division chief of surgical oncology and chief of surgical services for the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center in Albuquerque since 2009. As an educator, he was a professor of surgical oncology at UNM and the program director for the complex general surgical oncology fellowship. He also served as the vice chairman of academic affairs and faculty development for the Department of Surgery.

A specialist in the surgical treatment of colorectal, pancreas and liver cancers, Rajput has focused his scientific research on key signal transduction regulators of cancer metastases. While at the University of New Mexico, he also collaborated with colleagues to examine racial and other disparities in cancer incidence and treatment outcomes. He is the author of numerous scientific journal articles.

At the Kimmel Cancer Center, Rajput will oversee cancer services at Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital, as well as Johns Hopkins’ collaborative programs with Howard University and Unity Health that are designed to improve access for patients living in wards 7 and 8 in Washington. He also will be responsible for the expansion of cancer clinical trials offered in the National Capital Region, and the development of a laboratory research enterprise — in connection with the National Cancer Institute — focusing on bringing new treatments to patients.

Approximately 3,000 patients are seen each year at the Kimmel Cancer Center in the National Capital Region for breast, bladder, colorectal, liver, lung and pancreas cancer, and for leukemia and lymphoma.

“Ash is an exceptional physician-scientist whose vision and leadership will build on our strong presence in the region and further enhance the care we provide patients,” says William Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., who heads the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

A graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Rajput also completed general surgery training at Case Western Reserve University and a fellowship in surgical oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Rajput is married to Sunita Rajput, D.O., a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist. They have four children and a rescue dog.