Christopher Flowers, M.D., joined The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in August 2019 as Department Chair of Lymphoma/Myeloma and was appointed Division Head of Cancer Medicine in September 2023. Prior to MD Anderson, he was professor of Hematology and Oncology with a joint appointment in Biomedical Informatics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. During his tenure there, he served the Winship Cancer Institute as director of the Emory Healthcare-Lymphoma Program for 13 years and as scientific director of Research Informatics for four years. An internationally recognized expert in lymphoma clinical care, epidemiology and outcomes research, Dr. Flowers is an innovator who has a passion for facilitating new drug development. He is an active clinician who conducts clinical research involving cancer outcomes, cancer informatics, and phase 1/2 trials, focusing on the clinical development of novel therapeutics for B-cell lymphomas. His broader research interests include patient-oriented research in lymphoma and computer microsimulation models and cost-effectiveness analyses aimed at developing strategies to individualize care for cancer patients and improve systems of care. His work has resulted in >200 peer-reviewed publications. He has received peer-reviewed funding from foundations and the NIH including leading two U01 awards and two multi-institutional team science grants.
Dr. Flowers earned his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine where he also completed an MSc in Medical Informatics to gain expertise developing information systems to improve clinical research. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he continued his research training as a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and earned a second master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy. During this time, he also completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Flowers has served in many capacities for national professional societies and was elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation. In 2018, he was named a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and served as chair of both the ASCO guidelines on management of febrile neutropenia and ASCO health disparities committees.