Andrea Hayes-Dixon, MD, D '87 MED ’91 HON '23

Dean of the Howard University College of Medicine

As a young pediatric surgeon, Andrea Hayes-Dixon, MD, D ’87 MED ’91 HON ’23 refused to accept the idea of “impossible.” Now, thanks to her perseverance against steep odds, more kids survive one of the rarest and most devastating childhood cancers.

Hayes-Dixon’s first encounter with desmoplastic small round cell tumor, an aggressive cancer that causes abdominal cavity tumors, was in 1999 when she was training at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The patient was a 12-year-old boy. The surgeon said the tumors were inoperable, and Hayes-Dixon had to break the news to his parents: Their son would die.

At that moment, Hayes-Dixon dedicated her career to studying the disease. Since then, her innovative surgical technique has changed everything for her young patients and their families. In the procedure, Hayes-Dixon painstakingly removes each tumor—anywhere from dozens to thousands. Then, she washes the abdominal cavity with heated chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.

She performed the groundbreaking operation for the first time in 2006. Now, with her technique, the survival rate for the cancer has gone from a dismal 15% to an encouraging 70% or higher.  

But because the surgery had never been done on a child before, Hayes-Dixon had to teach herself to perform the meticulous surgical dissection—no easy feat, especially when tumors were attached to the bladder and rectum. The simplest solution would be to remove the affected organs, but that would leave the child with permanent disabilities. So, with incredible patience, Hayes-Dixon perfected her technique to preserve the internal organs by removing each tumor individually. In one surgery, she removed more than 2,000 tumors over 22 hours.  

“I know with certainty that God put me here to take care of children, adolescents, and young adults with this awful disease,” Hayes-Dixon says. “I will continue to study it in the laboratory until we …  are able to completely conquer it.”

During her career, she has conquered other hurdles, too. In 2004, Hayes-Dixon became the first Black woman in the United States to become a board-certified pediatric surgeon, and currently she is the first woman to serve as dean of the Howard University College of Medicine. She has also held leadership roles at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of North Carolina. She served as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board cancer centers subcommittee and as chair of the Scientific Management Review Board at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Modern Healthcare named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

Hayes-Dixon’s continued research has helped identify a key biological driver of desmoplastic small round cell tumor, opening new avenues for targeted therapies and new opportunities for hope for patients and families dealing with this disease.  

Looking at her past successes as well as to the future potential of her work, we are honored to present Hayes-Dixon with the 2026 Career Achievement Award.  

 

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