Abramson Cancer Center

Department of Surgery (Patient)
Department of Surgery (Academic)

Melanoma, with special expertise in isolated limb perfusion; soft tissue sarcomas of extremities and trunk; endocrine cancers, with special expertise in thyroid malignancies, pancreatic endocrine tumors, and adrenal cancer; liver malignancies

Regional delivery of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hypothermia using surgical techniques to: extremities for cutaneous melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma, liver for unresectable metastatic disease, and peritoneal cavity for carcinomatosis.

Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, Dr. Fraker is also Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery. A surgical oncologist and endocrine surgeon, Dr. Fraker served as a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Frakers research efforts have focused on regional perfusion to treat melanoma and soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities and metatastic tumors of the liver. His clinical practice deals primarily with surgical oncology (including melanoma, sarcoma, liver tumors and breast cancer) and endocrine surgery of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and pancreas. His clinical research protocols include isolated limb perfusion for melanoma and sarcoma, intra arterial chemotherapy for liver tumors, photodynamic therapy for intra peritoneal disease, and lymph node mapping for melanoma and breast cancer. Dr. Fraker's research interests include mechanism of action of tumor necrosis factor, treatment strategy targeting tumor angiogenesis, regional gene therapy, and photodynamic therapy.

Dr. Fraker maintains special interest in the Treatment of primary and metastatic liver tumors by resection, radiofrequency thermal ablation, intra-arterial pump for chemotherapy; and sentinel lymph node mapping; treatment of melanoma with sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsy, and isolated limb perfusion; gastrointestinal cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum; thyroid cancer; parathyroid disease; pancreatic islet cell tumors; carcinoid; adrenal tumors including laparoscopic adrenalectomy; gastrointestinal sarcomas; use of photodynarnic therapy for treatment of intraperitoneal malignancies (carcinomatosis and sarcomatosis, including ovarian cancer).