Kenneth Tanabe, MD, is Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Deputy Clinical Director of the Mass General Cancer Center, Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and former Surgical Director of the Mass General Hospital Pigmented Lesion Clinic. Dr. Tanabe received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from Stanford University and then a doctorate in medicine from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He completed residency training in general surgery at the New York Hospital – Cornell University Medical Center, and then completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center before joining the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to his administrative responsibilities and maintaining a clinical practice, Dr. Tanabe directs a research laboratory that explores areas of gene therapy and malignant transformation.

Dr. Tanabe is nationally recognized as an expert in melanoma, and he serves on the Melanoma Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Dr. Tanabe serves as Deputy Editor for Annals of Surgical Oncology and sits on editorial boards for other journals including the Oncologist, Cancer, Cancer Gene Therapy, and UpToDate. He lectures and engages in panel discussions nationally and internationally.

Dr. Tanabe’s clinical practice focuses on liver surgery and melanoma surgery. He has brought new surgical techniques for melanoma surgery to Mass General and to the region. Dr. Tanabe has been named one of Boston’s “Top Doctors” each year for the past 18 years. He is actively involved in the education and training of surgical oncology and medical oncology fellows, surgery residents, medical students and post-doctoral laboratory research fellows. He serves as the director of a Surgical Oncology Fellowship Training program at Mass General, and the director of a training grant for post-doctoral fellows studying cancer biology. Dr. Tanabe is the author of over 175 peer-reviewed original research articles, as well as dozens of review articles and book chapters. Dr. Tanabe also serves on the Complex General Surgical Oncology Board of the American Board of Surgery, whose function is to oversee credentialing of surgical oncologists in the U.S.