{"entity":{"id":"maria-cabanillas","kind":"person","name":"Maria E. Cabanillas","aka":[],"tldr":"Turned anaplastic thyroid cancer, once measured in months, into a treatable disease with BRAF-targeted therapy and neoadjuvant strategies.","summary":"Maria Cabanillas led the anaplastic thyroid cancer work within the ROAR basket trial that won dabrafenib plus trametinib approval for BRAF V600E-mutant disease, and pioneered neoadjuvant BRAF/MEK inhibition to make previously unresectable tumours operable, which has raised one-year survival in her centre's series from near zero to above 50%. She leads the anaplastic thyroid cancer programme at MD Anderson.","asOf":"2026-09-10","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Cabanillas%20ME%5BAuthor%5D%20anaplastic%20thyroid"}],"tags":["thyroid","braf","neoadjuvant"],"related":[],"cancers":["thyroid"],"sections":[],"technologies":["kinase-inhibitors"],"targets":["braf"],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["md-anderson"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["roar-atc"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Professor of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, MD Anderson Cancer Center","institutionId":"md-anderson","specialisms":["Anaplastic thyroid cancer","BRAF/MEK targeted therapy","Neoadjuvant therapy","Endocrine oncology"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Cabanillas%20ME%5BAuthor%5D%20anaplastic%20thyroid"}],"papers":[{"title":"Dabrafenib and trametinib treatment in patients with locally advanced or metastatic BRAF V600-mutant anaplastic thyroid cancer (ROAR)","journal":"JCO","year":2018,"doi":"10.1200/JCO.2017.73.6785"},{"title":"Neoadjuvant BRAF- and immune-directed therapy for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma","journal":"Thyroid","year":2018,"doi":"10.1089/thy.2018.0060"}]},"route":"/people/maria-cabanillas/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"thyroid","kind":"cancer","name":"Thyroid cancer","route":"/cancers/thyroid/"}],"technology":[{"id":"kinase-inhibitors","kind":"technology","name":"Small-molecule kinase inhibitors","route":"/technologies/kinase-inhibitors/"}],"target":[{"id":"braf","kind":"target","name":"BRAF","route":"/targets/braf/"}],"institution":[{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"}],"trial":[{"id":"roar-atc","kind":"trial","name":"ROAR (anaplastic thyroid cancer cohort)","route":"/trials/roar-atc/"}]}}