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Anushree Chaitanya Shirali, MD

Associate Professor Term, Director of the Onco-Nephrology Program
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Additional Titles

Medical Director, Peritoneal Dialysis Unit, DaVita

Medical Director, Hemodialysis Unit, DaVita

Contact Info

Yale School of Medicine

c/o Section of Nephrology, PO Box 208029

New Haven, CT 06520-8029

United States

About

Titles

Associate Professor Term, Director of the Onco-Nephrology Program

Positions outside Yale

Medical Director, Peritoneal Dialysis Unit, DaVita; Medical Director, Hemodialysis Unit, DaVita

Biography

Dr. Shirali is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of Nephrology. She received her medical education at New York Medical College and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Hospital. She obtained Nephrology fellowship training at Yale University and subsequently joined the faculty. As head of the Onco-Nephrology specialty clinic at Yale, she sees patients with cancer with kidney dysfunction, hypertension, or electrolyte abnormalities, including those on early phase clinical trials with emerging therapies. Having published on a variety of topics relevant to the treatment of kidney disease in patients with cancer, she has a particular clinical interest in immune checkpoint inhibitors and their kidney related adverse effects. In addition to her clinical activities, she has served on the American Society of Nephrology’s OncoNephrology advisory group, has contributed to the American Society of Nephrology's OncoNephrology curriculum, and has authored the Core Curriculum on OncoNephrology for the American Journal of Kidney Diseases. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Onco-Nephrology and the Joint Editorial Board for the journals of the American Society of Nephrology.

Appointments

  • Nephrology

    Associate Professor on Term
    Primary

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Non Degree Program
Yale University School of Management , Yale Medicine Advanced Leaders Program (2024)
Research Fellowship
Yale University School of Medicine (2011)
Clinical Fellowship
Yale University School of Medicine (2007)
Residency
Montefiore Hospital (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) (2006)
MD
New York Medical College, Medicine (2003)
BS
University of California at Davis, Physiology (1997)

Research

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Anushree Chaitanya Shirali's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

2022

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    American Journal of Kidney Diseases

  • activity

    Medicine, Clinical Nephrology

  • activity

    Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

  • activity

    Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation

  • activity

    Kidney International

Clinical Care

Overview

Anushree Shirali, MD, is a nephrologist who specializes in Onco-nephrology, a new and growing subspecialty dedicated to the care of people who have both kidney disease and cancer. “The implication of kidney disease can be big for their cancer therapy, because we are always looking at whether it is related to their treatment,” she says.

Cancer patients sometimes worry that Dr. Shirali will tell them a lifesaving immunotherapy or chemotherapy treatment they are taking is damaging their kidneys and they can no longer use the drugs. “That’s not really the case,” she says. “Our work is usually about management. There are medications that you can use to reverse kidney damage, particularly in cases where patients are receiving immunotherapy.”

After starting her career as a general nephrologist, Dr. Shirali began working with cancer patients about a decade ago, after Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven opened, and started the Onco-nephrology specialty clinic at Yale. “This was a relatively new area in nephrology at the time and it drew me because of the complex problems it dealt with in patients facing cancer,” she says. “For me it was a very personal thing as well. I lost my both my parents to pancreatic cancer. So, I understand from that perspective what happens and how vulnerable patients feel after a cancer diagnosis.”

Dr. Shirali tells her patients that fear about cancer is partly fear of the unknown, especially when it also involves issues with compromised kidney function. “Part of my job is to make a map of what lies ahead,” she says. “It becomes a little less fearful when we talk about how we will navigate the terrain together.”

While Dr. Shirali is primarily a clinician, she has a particular research interest in identifying risk factors for acute interstitial nephritis, an important cause of kidney failure that can be induced by immunotherapy in some patients.

Clinical Specialties

Nephrology; Medical Oncology

Fact Sheets

Board Certifications

  • Nephrology

    Certification Organization
    AB of Internal Medicine
    Original Certification Date
    2008
  • Internal Medicine

    Certification Organization
    AB of Internal Medicine
    Original Certification Date
    2006

Yale Medicine News

Get In Touch

Contacts

Appointment Number
Clinic Fax Number
Mailing Address

Yale School of Medicine

c/o Section of Nephrology, PO Box 208029

New Haven, CT 06520-8029

United States

Administrative Support

Locations

  • Patient Care Locations

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