Prof. Balch leads a distinguished career as a surgical oncologist and authority in melanoma and breast cancer. He has authored over 630 publications on topics such as clinical investigations involving the natural history of melanoma, prognostic factors predicting clinical outcomes, standards of surgical treatment, and the conduct and methodology of clinical research and immunology. He is regarded as one of the leading melanoma experts in the world. He is the editor of Cutaneous Melanoma, regarded as the authoritative textbook on melanoma, now in its 5th edition. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Surgical Oncology and is Chair of the Melanoma Staging Committee of the American Joint Committee on Cancer, which determines the staging criteria for melanomas worldwide. He has held major leadership roles in clinical research in three comprehensive cancer centers (UAB, MD Anderson, and City of Hope). He has been a PI or Co-PI of numerous clinical trials, including 10 phase III trials, most of which were NCI-funded National Phase III trials. He has organized or participated in randomized surgical trials that have defined the current standards of melanoma surgery .
