William Fraser Symmans

William Fraser Symmans is Professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His work bridges clinical pathology and translational breast cancer research through innovative quantitative methodologies.

Dr. Symmans pioneered the residual cancer burden (RCB) method for pathologic response assessment after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, now standard in clinical trials like I-SPY. His research integrates genomic assays to predict treatment response and survival while advancing minimally invasive biopsy techniques for optimal biospecimen quality. Key contributions include redefining 'omics-based' predictive test development by distinguishing primary resistance from excellent response and elucidating chemo-endocrine therapy synergy in Stage II-III breast cancer.

As a mentor, he guides international translational researchers across pathology, surgery, and public health disciplines. His laboratory data with Lajos Pusztai forms a substantial portion of publicly available annotated breast cancer genomic datasets. Dr. Symmans actively collaborates with major clinical trial groups including I-SPY, NCI Latin American Trials Group, ABCSG, and TBCRC on pathologic assessment protocols and genomic biobanking standards.