Baptist Cancer Center to host 18th Mid-South Cancer Symposium

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Nov. 11, 2025 – Baptist Cancer Center will hold the 18th annual Mid-South Cancer Symposium titled “Synergy in Oncology: Innovating Lung, Hematologic and Breast Cancer Care,” on Friday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Nov. 15 at Hilton Memphis.

The symposium will explore the advantages of a multidisciplinary approach to treating cancer. Topics will include the use of AI technology in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, updates on radiation therapy for breast cancer, multidisciplinary care for multiple myeloma, early diagnosis of cancer and genetics. Nationally recognized cancer experts Dr. Lecia V. Sequist, a medical oncologist and researcher with Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Garnet L. Anderson, a biostatistician and clinical trialist with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will be guest speakers during the symposium.

“Baptist Cancer Center is a premier cancer center that collaborates with other globally recognized cancer programs on developing innovative diagnoses and treatments, including multidisciplinary care programs, new techniques and advanced research,” said Parker Harris, administrator of Baptist Cancer Center. “Through Baptist Cancer Center’s annual Mid-South Cancer Symposium, our oncologists and researchers get to share their work and outcomes and hear from national cancer experts on new technology, medical advancements and using AI for greater diagnosis and treatment of cancer.”

Sequist, Landry Family professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and program director of the Cancer Early Detection and Diagnostics Clinic at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, leads a collaboration with Baptist Cancer Center and MIT to test an AI algorithm called Sybil that studies suggest might predict who will develop lung cancer in the future with more than 90% accuracy. The collaboration is part of a $6 million project involving five U.S. hospitals working as a consortium over three years to determine what Sybil could mean for reducing lung cancer cases with fewer CT scans.

Sequist attended Cornell University and Harvard Medical School and completed her clinical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. During training, she also earned a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She joined the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in 2005, and her research focuses on novel technologies and approaches to cancer risk assessment, cancer screening and early detection.

Anderson is the senior vice president and director of public health sciences at Fred Hutchinson Research Center, the associate director for population sciences at Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium and professor of cancer prevention research and biostatistics programs in public health sciences at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She received a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Washington in Seattle, a Master of Mathematical Sciences from State University of New York in Binghamton, New York, and a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho.

Baptist Cancer Center provides world-class cancer care close to home throughout Baptist Memorial Health Care’s tristate area of Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, Baptist Cancer Center offers treatment, research, support services, community education and the area's first genetic counseling and testing program for cancer. Baptist Cancer Center also has the Mid-South's only adult myelosuppression unit and is one of 45 National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program grant locations across the country offering leading-edge clinical trials. In 2018, Baptist Cancer Center was awarded its second $9 million research grant under NCORP to continue to build its clinical trial infrastructure across the Mid-South. In 2020, Baptist Memorial Health Care launched the Mid-South Miracle, a multifaceted initiative aimed at reducing lung cancer deaths in the Mid-South 25% by 2030. For more information, please visit baptistcancercenter.com, or follow us on Facebook at @baptistcancercenter.

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