NEW HAVEN, CT – Barbara Ann Burtness, MD has been named Clinical Research Program Leader of the Head and Neck Cancers Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven and Co-Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Research Program for Yale Cancer Center. She will be proposed to the rank of Professor of Medicine (medical oncology) and will begin her new appointment on April 1, 2014.
Dr. Burtness returns to Yale Cancer Center after eight years at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where she served as Associate Director of Clinical Research and Professor of Medical Oncology. She was also Chief of the Head and Neck Oncology Section at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Nationally, Dr. Burtness is Chair of the Head and Neck Cancer Committee of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group and a member of the National Cancer Institute Head and Neck Steering Committee.
“Dr. Burtness’ strong patient care and clinical research experience will bring a new level of translational cancer medicine to our Head and Neck Cancers Program,” said Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, Chief of Medical Oncology, Ensign Professor of Medicine, and Associate Director for Translational Research at Yale Cancer Center. “Her ability to lead our clinical research efforts in Head and Neck Cancers, and continue the strong track record of achievements in developmental therapeutics at Yale Cancer Center, will be a tremendous asset to our success in the coming years.”
Dr. Burtness’ research concentrates on studies of targeted treatments for EGFR expressed head and neck cancers. She has shown that high EGFR expression predicted resistance to cetuximab in head and neck cancers and is the principal investigator of a phase I clinical trial of cetuximab with escalating doses of the mTOR inhibitor everolimus to target signaling from pAkt, and an investigator-initiated phase II trial of chemotherapy plus cetuximab, followed by addition of erlotinib.
Dr. Burtness received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She completed her internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Burtness is a member of the American Society for Clinical Oncology and American Association for Cancer Research. She is a member of the editorial board of HemOnc Today, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Frontiers in Oncology, and Clinical Cancer Research. She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Contact: Renee Gaudette