2027 Faculty

Prof. Frédérique Penault-Llorca is currently professor of pathology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand, CEO of the Comprehensive Regional Cancer Institute Centre Jean PERRIN, Clermont-Ferrand, France, deputy director of the research team INSERM 1240 IMoST, and head of the Molecular Biology Plateform at Centre Jean Perrin. She is president of the Immuno- Oncology group at UNICANCER R&D. She is a member of several pathology and oncology societies, including the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the French Society of Pathology, Senologia, and the Study Group for Prognostic and Predictive Factors for Immunohistochemistry (GEFPICS), with her main areas of interest being female cancers.

Dr. Gary Deng is an integrative medicine specialist who strives to inspire and empower people with cancer to make themselves strong in body, mind, and spirit. He incorporates some Eastern medicine approaches that are supported by scientific evidence and focus on nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, and circadian rhythms. Dr. Gary advise patients on the proper use of herbs and dietary supplements so that they may experience potential benefits while avoiding harm. Dr. Gary Deng leads the Integrative Medicine Clinical Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and he works closely with a team of highly professional therapists who provide acupuncture, massage therapy, mind-body therapies, yoga, qigong, exercise regimens, and music therapy — all tailored to the needs of cancer patients and survivors.

Hope S. Rugo, MD, FASCO, is a medical oncologist and hematologist specializing in breast cancer research and treatment. She is a Professor of Medicine, Director of the Women’s Cancers Program, and Division Chief of Breast Medical Oncology at City of Hope. Formerly, Dr. Rugo was Director of Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education at UCSF, where she is Professor Emeritus. Her research focuses on combining novel therapies with standard treatments to improve outcomes for both early and late-stage breast cancer and supportive care.. She lectures globally and advances patient care through research, education, and clinical practice.

Dr. Cortés is the Head of the International Breast Cancer Centre (IBCC) in Barcelona and co-director of IOB in Madrid, founding partner of Medica Scientia innovation Research (MedSIR). According to the American Expertscape 2023 ranking, he is considered the world’s leading expert on HER2+ and fourth world oncologist with the greatest expertise in breast cancer and in 2022 and 2023 was identified as Clarivate™ world’s most influential researchers.

Lisa Carey, MD, ScM, FASCO, is an internationally recognized breast cancer physician-researcher who, in partnership with scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill and across the globe, is focused on advancing the understanding and characterization of molecular subtypes of breast cancer in order to develop more effective prevention and treatment strategies. Carey is the L. Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor for Breast Cancer Research at the UNC School of Medicine, the Deputy Director of Clinical Sciences at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Director of the UNC Lineberger Center for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Her research interests focus upon breast cancer, including examination of different subtypes of breast cancer, evaluation of new chemotherapy agents in early and metastatic breast cancer, and examination of tumor characteristics that predict response to therapy. She has worked extensively with scientists across UNC Lineberger and the UNC Gillings Global School of Public Health to better understand and characterize the molecular subtypes of breast cancer so that we may develop better prevention and treatment strategies. With Drs. Perou and Millikan, she identified the elevated risk of the poor-prognosis basal-like breast cancer subtype in young African-American women. She is a world-wide expert in triple negative breast cancer, and led the first trial looking at a new drug regimen in this breast cancer subtype. Her research spans the spectrum from early curative breast cancer to metastatic disease. She has worked extensively developing trials that use neoadjuvant, or preoperative, chemotherapy for breast cancer in order to address both clinical questions about the best regimens, as well as scientific questions regarding sensitivity or resistance to drugs. She led a large NCI-sponsored trial in HER2-positive breast cancer that examined dual HER2-targeting with two anti-HER2 drugs that found that while drug regimen was important in outcome, even more important were tumor characteristics such as subtype and evidence of immune cell activation. Based on this work, she has put together an international team looking at the molecular markers responsible this variation in response and survival, and her efforts as co-chair of the national cooperative group, Alliance, have resulted in two NCI trials examining these markers and optimizing treatment. In addition, she is actively involved in examining novel agents in metastatic breast cancer. Her Tumor Donation Program has contributed novel information regarding the genetic differences between the original primary breast cancer and the metastases in distant organs. This work in part spawned the AURORA-US multicenter initiative furthering this examination of the molecular landscape of metastatic disease; she serves on the Steering Committee for that effort. She serves in national leadership roles, including as a member of the National Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Steering Committee, Co-Chair of the NCI-sponsored Alliance Breast Committee, Co-Chair of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium Steering Committee, and member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.