ASCO elects Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Monica Bertagnolli, MD, as 2018-19 president

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The American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has chosen Monica Bertagnolli, MD, of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC), to lead the prestigious cancer organization as its president in 2018.

Bertagnolli, a noted surgical oncologist will take office as president-elect during the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June 2017. Her one-year presidential term will begin in June 2018.

“Serving as ASCO President is a tremendous personal honor for anyone in the field of oncology,” said Bertagnolli. “Much more importantly, it is an opportunity for me to make a meaningful difference by providing a strong voice in the health care community for those whom I consider to be my particular constituency: clinical and translational researchers, community and academic oncologists participating in clinical research and surgical oncologists.”

Bertagnolli is chief of the division of Surgical Oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, and an associate surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

“ASCO has elected a talented surgical oncologist in Dr. Bertagnolli. She is respected leader who will be a wonderful advocate for oncology professionals and cancer patients,” said Laurie Glimcher, MD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “She joins an esteemed group of Dana-Farber affiliated physicians that have led ASCO.”

“We are immensely proud of Dr. Bertagnolli, who has led the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Surgical Oncology to be among the best in the country,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, president of Brigham and Women’s Health Care. “Being elected by her peers to lead ASCO is a true testament to her leadership and commitment to support those in the health care community who are dedicated to research and discovery and ensuring innovative and exceptional clinical care to cancer patients everywhere.”

A member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer and Sarcoma Disease Centers at DF/BWCC, Bertagnolli, a superb clinician and scientist, works closely with colleagues in medical oncology, radiation oncology and pathology to treat patients with incredibly rare and complex diseases, including the treatment of tumors from a gastrointestinal disease that has genetic links to colon cancer.

Bertagnolli is also highly regarded for her leadership and skill in the lab, working with researchers and clinicians on preventing cancer of the colon and has greatly influenced the development of important drug therapies that tens of thousands of people take to prevent colon cancer.

For 15 years, Bertagnolli led gastrointestinal correlative science initiatives within the NCI-funded Cancer Cooperative Groups, where she facilitated integration of tumor-specific molecular markers of treatment outcome into nation-wide clinical cancer treatment protocols. She has also held numerous leadership roles in multi-institutional cancer clinical research consortia, including serving as the group chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, an NCI-funded cooperative group. She is the chief executive officer of Alliance Foundation Trials, LLC, a not-for-profit corporation that conducts international cancer clinical trials, and a current member of the Foundation for the NIH Biomarkers Consortium, as well as serving on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science.

ASCO represents more than 40,000 oncology professionals who care for people living with cancer. Its flagship publication, the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), is an authoritative resource for cancer research findings.

Bertagnolli will be the sixth Dana-Farber affiliated physician to serve as president since ASCO was founded in 1964. The previous five were Emil Frei, MD, 1968-69; George P. Canellos, MD, 1993-94; Karen H. Antman, MD, 1994-95; Robert Mayer, MD, 1997-98, and Bruce Johnson, MD 2017-18.


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