NEXT Virginia

NEXT Oncology - Virginia is headed by Alex I. Spira, MD, PhD. FACP, who serves as the site’s clinical director and CEO, as well as the co-director of the Virginia Cancer Specialists Research Institute. He is the director of the thoracic and Phase I program and a clinical assistant professor at John Hopkins.Dr. Spira sought to expand the clinic’s Phase I and developmental therapeutics cancer research program and bring the latest in new agents and anticancer treatments to its Research Institute.

Neel Belani, MD, is a medical oncologist at NEXT Oncology – Virginia. Dr. Belani completed his undergraduate education at Rutgers New Brunswick before attending Rutgers Business School, focusing on healthcare policy and administration. He then went on to attend Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, where he was a Gold Humanism Honor Society Member.

Dr. Belani completed an internal medicine residency at Brown University and a medical oncology and hematology fellowship at Temple University – Fox Chase Cancer Center. With a strong interest in thoracic oncology, he completed an observership at National Cancer Center in Tokyo, Japan.

He is board certified in Medical Oncology and has published in multiple peer-reviewed publications, including The Journal of Cardio Oncology, as well as Cancer Discovery.

Mohamad Adham Salkeni, MD, FRCPC earned his medical degree from the University of Damascus. He then completed his residency in internal medicine at St. Louis University and fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Cincinnati. During his medical training, he was engaged in bench and translational research investigating inflammatory modulation of the blood-brain barrier in vivo, published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology; and established a tumor-informed assay for detecting circulating mutant DNA of brain cancer, published in the Journal of Neuro-Oncology. Following training completion, he joined West Virginia University as an Assistant Professor and was later promoted to Associate Professor, where he also served as Medical Director for the Clinical Trials Research Unit and Co-Chair of the Breast Cancer Leadership Committee. Interested in early drug development, Dr. Salkeni elected to move on to the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he completed a fellowship in Advanced Developmental Therapeutics. During his time spent at the NCI, he participated in concept development and design of early phase clinical trials of novel immunotherapeutics and small molecules, and authored a book chapter on resistance mechanisms to immunotherapy.

Dr. Salkeni is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Hematology (ASH), and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Dr. Salkeni joined Virginia Cancer Specialists as a Clinical Investigator in Phase 1 cancer clinical trials, in collaboration with NEXT Oncology. In his spare time, he enjoys swimming and spending time outdoors with family.

Mitul Gandhi, M.D. attended Rutgers University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He earned his medical degree from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School where he received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Award among other honors. Dr. Gandhi then completed his residency and internship in Internal Medicine at University of Michigan Health System.

Dr. Gandhi joins Virginia Cancer Specialists after serving as Chief Fellow in the Medical Oncology and Hematology Fellowship program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. During his time at Northwestern, Dr. Gandhi actively participated in clinical research, with a focus in high risk lymphoma. He has presented at major national meetings, won the American Society of Hematology’s Abstract Achievement Award in 2013, and has several publications including a recent article in Blood on double hit lymphomas. Dr. Gandhi is currently an Associate Member of both the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In his spare time, Dr. Gandhi enjoys traveling with his wife, reading and writing, and spending time with family and friends.