Department of Surgery

Dhaval Thakor Patel, MD, FACS, is an endocrine and general surgeon who cares for patients with adrenal, neuroendocrine, parathyroid, and thyroid conditions. He has taken care of many patients with complex and rare endocrine syndromes including multiple endocrine neoplasia types 1 and 2, von Hippel Lindau disease, pheochromocytoma-paraganglioma syndromes including SDHB and SDHD, and neurofibromatosis type 1. He has expert knowledge in managing patients with carcinoid syndrome of the small bowel, large bowel, and pancreas.

He earned his medical degree from Drexel University College of Medicine and completed his internship and surgical residency at Stony Brook University, New York. After his general surgery training, he went on to a clinical and research fellowship in endocrine oncology surgery at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At the NIH, his research focused on improving the diagnosis and treatment of endocrine cancers through imaging, biomarker discovery, and treatment of advanced disease. He was the principal investigator for multiple clinical trials including utilizing a personalized somatic mutation approach to the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors with sunitinib and everolimus, assessing whether surgical or medical treatment was beneficial for subclinical hypercortisolism, and the banking of rare endocrine malignant tissues. He has been awarded multiple society grants to advance his research.

Dr. Patel has held academic appointments as an assistant professor of surgery at the National Institutes of Health, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Hackensack University School of Medicine. He is well published with over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading journals such as Annals of Surgery, and the New England Journal of Medicine. He has presented his research at national and international meetings to further advance medical and surgical knowledge. In addition, his research has led to the discovery of urinary biomarkers for patients with adrenal cancer, for which he holds a patent. He is co-editor of the first textbook focusing on von Hippel Lindau disease. He is an active member of multiple professional organizations including the American College of Surgeons, the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the Society of Surgical Oncologist. Through these organizations, he has served on multiple committees advocating for patients, raising awareness of endocrine diseases, reviewing and writing guidelines, and assessing and evaluating society grants.