Christopher Corless, M.D., Ph.D.

Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer, Knight Diagnostic Laboratories

Oregon Health & Science University

Professor of Pathology, OHSU

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Corless received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. He did his residency training in anatomic pathology at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., where he also completed fellowships in gastrointestinal and genitourinary pathology.  Dr. Corless is board certified in anatomic pathology.  He joined the faculty of Oregon Health & Science University in 1994 and became professor of pathology in 2004.

Dr. Corless has served as the residency program director in the Department of Pathology and medical director of surgical pathology for OHSU Hospital.  In addition to practicing surgical pathology, Dr. Corless has expertise in applying molecular diagnostics to the classification and prognostication of solid tumors.  He has a longstanding research interest in gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), as well as in bringing new technologies into clinical use.  Dr. Corless has authored or coauthored more than 200 publications.

Contact Information
corlessc@ohsu.edu

Selected Publications

Elsevier pure profile

  1. Benjamin F. Smith, Yee Cheen Doung, Brooke Beckett, Christopher L. Corless, Lara E. Davis, Jessica L. Davis. Intraosseous Spindle Cell Rhabdomyosarcoma with MEIS1::NCOA2 Fusion–Case Report with Substantial Clinical Follow-up and Review of the Literature. Cancer Investigation 2023
    2. Matthew D. Wood, Carol Beadling, Tanaya Neff, Steve Moore, Christina Harrington, Lissa Baird, Christopher Corless. Molecular profiling of pre- and post-treatment pediatric high-grade astrocytomas reveals acquired increased tumor mutation burden in a subset of recurrences. Acta neuropathologica communications Dec 2023
    3. Vanderlene L. Kung, Rupali Avasare, Marcia Friedman, Stephanie Mengden Koon, Tanaya L. Neff, Sara Protzek, Christopher Corless, Victoria Krajbich, Naly Setthavongsack, Rebecca Ditmore, Randall Woltjer, Nicole K. Andeen. Targeted Transcriptional Analysis of IgA Vasculitis, IgA Nephropathy, and IgA-Dominant Infection-Related Glomerulonephritis Reveals Both Distinct and Overlapping Immune Signatures. Kidney360 Jun 1, 2023
    4. Brett E. Johnson, Allison L. Creason, Jayne M. Stommel, Jamie M. Keck, Swapnil Parmar, Courtney B. Betts, Aurora Blucher, Christopher Boniface, Elmar Bucher, Erik Burlingame, Todd Camp, Koei Chin, Jennifer Eng, Joseph Estabrook, Heidi S. Feiler, Michael B. Heskett, Zhi Hu, Annette Kolodzie, Ben L. Kong, Marilyne Labrie, Jinho Lee, Patrick Leyshock, Souraya Mitri, Janice Patterson, Jessica L. Riesterer, Shamilene Sivagnanam, Julia Somers, Damir Sudar, Guillaume Thibault, Benjamin R. Weeder, Christina Zheng, Xiaolin Nan, Reid F. Thompson, Laura M. Heiser, Paul T. Spellman, George Thomas, Emek Demir, Young Hwan Chang, Lisa M. Coussens, Alexander R, Guimaraes, Christopher Corless, Jeremy Goecks, Raymond Bergan, Zahi Mitri, Gordon B. Mills, Joe W. Gray. An omic and multidimensional spatial atlas from serial biopsies of an evolving metastatic breast cancer. Cell Reports Medicine Feb 15, 2022
    5. Mayra Yebra, Shruti Bhargava, Avi Kumar, Adam M. Burgoyne, Chih Min Tang, Hyunho Yoon, Sudeep Banerjee, Joseph Aguilera, Thekla Cordes, Vipul Sheth, Sangkyu Noh, Rowan Ustoy, Sam Li, Sunil J. Advani, Christopher L. Corless, Michael C. Heinrich, Razelle Kurzrock, Scott M. Lippman, Paul T. Fanta, Olivier Harismendy, Christian Metallo, Jason K. Sicklick. Establishment of Patient-Derived Succinate Dehydrogenase–Deficient Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor Models for Predicting Therapeutic Response. Clinical Cancer Research Jan 1, 2022
    6. Florence Choo, Igor Odintsov, Kevin Nusser, Katelyn S. Nicholson, Lara Davis, Christopher L. Corless, Linda Stork, Romel Somwar, Marc Ladanyi, Jessica L. Davis, Monika A. Davare. Functional impact and targetability of PI3KCA, GNAS, and PTEN mutations in a spindle cell rhabdomyosarcoma with MYOD1 L122R mutation. Cold Spring Harbor molecular case studies Jan 2022
    7. Thomas L. Sutton, Brett S. Walker, Kevin Billingsley, Brett C. Sheppard, Christopher L. Corless, Michael C. Heinrich, Skye C. Mayo. Hepatic metastases in gastrointestinal stromal tumors. HPB 2021
    8. Liam H. Wong, Thomas L. Sutton, Brett C. Sheppard, Christopher L. Corless, Michael C. Heinrich, Skye C. Mayo. Neoadjuvant tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor. American Journal of Surgery 2022
    9. Tanja Pejovic, Pierre Valérien Abate, Hongli Ma, Jaclyn Thiessen, Christopher L. Corless, Abigail Peterson, Hugues Allard-Chamard, Marilyne Labrie. Single-Cell Proteomics Analysis of Recurrent Low-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma and Associated Brain Metastases. Frontiers in Oncology May 25, 2022
    10. Thomas L. Sutton, Brett S. Walker, Kevin G. Billingsley, Christopher L. Corless, Brett C. Sheppard, Michael C. Heinrich, Skye C. Mayo. Ten-Year Survivorship in Patients with Metastatic Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors. Annals of Surgical Oncology 2022 

The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University is a pioneer in the field of precision cancer medicine. The institute's director, Brian Druker, M.D., helped prove it was possible to shut down just the cells that enable cancer to grow. This breakthrough has made once-fatal forms of the disease manageable and transformed how cancer is treated. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center between Sacramento and Seattle – an honor earned only by the nation's top cancer centers. It is headquarters for one of the National Cancer Institute's largest research collaboratives, SWOG, in addition to offering the latest treatments and technologies as well as hundreds of research studies and clinical trials.

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