Anil Pillai, M.D.

Biography

Anil Kumar Pillai, M.D., is a Professor of Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Chief of its Vascular & Interventional Radiology Division. His clinical interests include interventional procedures related to cancer care, specifically liver and kidney cancers (minimally invasive targeted treatments), liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension, peripheral vascular disease, and venous thromboembolic disorders.

Originally from India, Dr. Pillai earned his medical degree from Kerala University, in Trivandrum, India. He completed radiology residency training at Sardar Patel Medical College of the University of Rajasthan, India.

Dr. Pillai worked as an Assistant Professor of Radiology at Amirta Institute of Medical Sciences in India for four years, and as a consultant radiologist in the Middle East for one year. After relocating to England, Dr. Pillai passed his board examinations in radiology and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists. He then worked in England as a consultant radiologist at Burnley General Hospital in East Lancashire before relocating to the United States to receive advanced training through fellowship programs in vascular and interventional radiology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

In addition to being board certified by the American Board of Radiology in diagnostic radiology and vascular and interventional radiology, Dr. Pillai is a Diplomate of the National Board of Radiology in India.

Prior to joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2012, Dr. Pillai served as a faculty member at Rush University Medical Center for five years. He left UT Southwestern in 2016 to become the Interventional Radiology Section Chief at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and returned to UT Southwestern to become Chief of Vascular & Interventional Radiology in 2019.

Dr. Pillai's research interests include developing animal models for liver cirrhosis and hepatoma, developing novel prognostic biomarkers for hepatocellular cancer, and developing new imaging techniques to predict responses to liver-directed treatments in hepatocellular cancer.

In 2019, Dr. Pillai became a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology.  

Personal Note

Dr. Pillai speaks multiple Indian languages. He is an avid traveler and a runner, and has completed several half- and full marathons. He is married and has two children.