UPDATE: Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, is now director of the Breast Cancer Disease Group at Duke Cancer Institute.
An earlier version (below) published on August 19, 2021, reflected her appointment as interim director.
Shelley Hwang, MD, MPH, has been named interim director of the Breast Cancer Disease Group at Duke Cancer Institute.
Executive director of DCI Michael B. Kastan, MD, PhD; DCI chief medical officer Edwin P. Alyea, MD; and DCI chief administrator Robin Famiglietti, PhD, MBA, FACHE, made the announcement on July 30.
"Dr. Hwang is recognized nationally for her leadership in clinical care, research and education, and she has been influential here at Duke in building our cancer program," said Kastan. "We want to express our gratitude to Dr. Hwang for leading us in this important work."
Currently vice chair of Research in the Department of Surgery, The Mary and Deryl Hart Distinguished Professor of Surgery, and a professor in the Department of Radiology, Hwang joined Duke a decade ago after an impressive career at the University of California, San Francisco.
In 2016, Time magazine named Hwang one of the 100 most influential people for her work in re-framing the problem of pre-invasive breast cancer. Her work continues on this front and she remains a national leader in this area of breast cancer research and treatment.
Hwang, with Rob West, MD, PhD (Stanford University) and Carlo Maley, PhD, MSc (Arizona State University), is a co-principal investigator for the Breast Pre-Cancer Atlas initiative — part of the NCI Human Tumor Atlas Network. The Breast Pre-Cancer Atlas is being developed to better understand ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a pre-invasive breast cancer precursor.
As interim director of the Breast Cancer Disease Group, Hwang will help advance DCI's vision of programmatic excellence in clinical care, innovative clinical research, translational research and basic science discovery.
"Dr. Hwang will support the success of the individual faculty within the program, facilitating appropriate mentoring and career development activities in collaboration with division chiefs and department chairs," said Alyea. "She will partner with the program leaders in the other disease groups to assure a unified, aligned and highly productive oncology program."
Breast medical oncologist P. Kelly Marcom, MD, held the role of director of the Breast Cancer Disease Group until his retirement from clinical practice this May. Susan Dent, MD, associate director, Clinical Research, and Donald McDonnell, PhD, associate director, Basic Science Research, for the Breast Cancer Disease group both remain in these roles.
