Peter M. Sadow, MD, PhD

Director, Head & Neck Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital

Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Sadow, Director of Head and Neck Pathology, is also a subspecialist in Genitourinary Pathology and a consultant in Endocrine Pathology, a subspecialty with many homes by organ system. He returned to MGH almost two decades after getting his first taste of research at MGH as a summer student while an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sadow's first project (and publication) involved the effects of thyroid hormone on tissue remodeling and wound repair. It was a desire to advance our knowledge of human disease that drove Dr. Sadow to pursue a combined MD/PhD program at the University of Chicago rather than pursuing his other academic passion of Egyptian art and archaeology, having studied Egyptology along with biology as an undergraduate. He has maintained his archaeological interests, even as a pathologist at MGH, and he was in Egypt with a Johns Hopkins excavation team during the Arab Spring in January of 2011. Dr. Sadow's doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago utilized transgenic mouse models with altered thyroid hormone response genes in order to understand and advance our knowledge of the effects of thyroid hormone on human physiology. This desire to understand the pathophysiology of endocrine dysfunction led Dr. Sadow to pursue clinical training in Anatomic Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he was born, followed by subspecialty training in Endocrine, Genitourinary, and Head & Neck Pathology. His clinical and research interests have continued in endocrine pathology, studying the mechanisms of endocrine carcinogenesis through translational studies involving the proteomics and genomics of endocrine neoplasia, primarily of the thyroid & adrenal glands. In addition to his clinical & research interests, Dr. Sadow has prominent teaching roles in the hospital, medical school, and in continuing medical education courses.