Yale Expert on 21st Century Cures Act

Patricia LoRusso, MDProfessor of Medicine (Medical Oncology); Professor of Medicine; Associate Director of Innovative Medicine at Yale Cancer Center

Dr. LoRusso can be reached anytime at [email protected] and her cell phone number is 203-449-8407.

Pat LoRusso brings more than 25 years of expertise in medical oncology, drug development, and early phase clinical trials. Prior to her Yale appointment, she served in numerous leadership roles at Wayne State University’s Barbara Karmanos Cancer Institute, most recently as director of the Phase I Clinical Trials Program and of the Eisenberg Center for Experimental Therapeutics.

Patricia M. LoRusso, D.O., professor of medicine (medical oncology) and associate director of Innovative Medicine at Yale Cancer Center, was among a group of 15 top cancer researchers and physician-scientists who met in Washington with aides to Vice President Joe Biden on Jan. 8 to discuss his “moonshot” program to advance cancer treatment.

The panel, convened by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), met with the vice president’s staff just days before President Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he announced a national effort to find innovative treatments for cancer and designated Biden, who lost his 46-year-old son to cancer last year, as “mission control.”

The AACR group—a cross section of cancer researchers and clinicians that included pathologists, pediatricians, and experts in genetic profiling—met for 90 minutes with members of Biden’s staff in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “They were knowledgeable, asked very good questions, and were really receptive,” said LoRusso, a member of the AACR board. “I was very impressed.”