About Us

Dr. Eric Winer was appointed Director of Yale Cancer Center and President and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital Yale New Haven Health System on February 1, 2022. He is also the Alfred Gilman Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Deputy Dean of Cancer Research at Yale School of Medicine. An internationally renowned expert in breast cancer, Dr. Winer has led and collaborated on innumerable clinical trials that have changed the face of the disease. His work has touched almost all aspects of breast cancer and he is particularly well known for his work in HER2 positive disease. Dr. Winer has long been an advocate of building teams consisting of scientists and clinicians to accelerate progress in cancer research and care. He previously served as principal investigator of a breast cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) for over a decade.

Dr. Winer is a member of the Board for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For over a decade, he served as chief scientific advisor and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. He co-led the National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Steering Committee from 2016 to 2022. Dr. Winer has published over 400 original manuscripts and mentored over 30 fellows and junior faculty. In recognition of his mentoring impact, he was the recipient of the William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School in 2020. He has also received numerous awards for his breast cancer research, most notably the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award in 2016 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award at ASCO in 2017, the Susan G. Komen Brinker Award for Clinical Research in 2018, and the Jill Rose award from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 2019.

Dr. Winer is an alumnus of both Yale College and Yale School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree in 1983, he completed training in internal medicine and served as chief resident at Yale New Haven Hospital. He completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Duke University School of Medicine and served on the Duke faculty from 1989 to 1997. He then joined Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School where he built an internationally prominent breast cancer program. Prior to his move back to Yale in 2022, he held the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and served as chief clinical development officer, and senior vice president for medical affairs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

• The only comprehensive cancer facility in the Northeast, bringing together both inpatient and outpatient care in one hospital.
• Connecticut's largest provider of cancer care - treating more than 48% of the approximately 20,000 patients diagnosed with cancer annually in the state.
• 13 multidisciplinary cancer centers of excellence
• 15 locations providing multidisciplinary cancer care in Connecticut and 1 in Westerly, Rhode Island
• ~ 450 oncology nurses on staff, more than 300 certified nurses
• More than 300 open clinical trials providing the most advanced cancer therapies, including a state-of-the-art Phase I Clinical Trials Infusion Unit for patients on phase I trials.
• Specialty services at all locations - survivorship care, social work, prevention education, tobacco treatment, integrative medicine, pain management, onco-dermatology, cardio-oncology, support groups, cancer boutique, psycho-oncology, sexuality, intimacy and menopause support, exercise & nutrition support, and integrative medicine services such as therapeutic massage, relaxation imagery, Reiki touch, yoga, pet visitation, and art expression.

• Celebrating 50 years as Connecticut's only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center
• More than 300 cancer researchers on faculty
• 338,000 square feet of research space
• #4 in National Institutes of Health funding (YSM)
• #23 in National Cancer Institute funding (YU)
• $96 M (direct) in cancer research funding
• $29 M (direct) in funding from the National Cancer Institute
• 102 National Cancer Institute funded projects
• 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences
• 22 members of the National Academy of Medicine
• 5 Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
• 2940 cancer research publications; 41% in high impact journals (Aug 1, 2018 - Feb 28, 2023)