Philip Bonomi, MD
Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology
Director – Division of Hematology-Oncology

Dr. Philip Bonomi has been involved in lung cancer research for almost three decades. He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and has served as the Chairman of the Thoracic Committee for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. Dr. Bonomi’s major research interests involve in the study of new chemotherapeutic and targeted agents for lung cancer, and development of combined modality treatments for locally advanced lung cancer. Dr. Bonomi has authored more than 150 journal articles.

Melody Cobleigh, MD
Maria Albanese Professor of Medicine
Associate Director – Section of Oncology

She was a member of the faculty at the University of Illinois from 1981-1989, and came to Rush in 1989, where she also serves as Director of the Comprehensive Breast Center. Dr. Cobleigh graduated from Rush Medical College. She completed her internship and residency at Rush University Medical Center and her Medical Oncology Fellowship at Indiana University. Dr. Cobleigh’s national service includes a variety of ASCO commitments including: Program Committee (Breast Cancer), the Patient Advocacy Committee, the Health Services Research Committee and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In addition, she has been a member of study sections of the NIH, the Medical Advisory Board of the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization, the Breast Cancer Core Committee of the ECOG, and the Board of Directors of the NSABP.

With a primary clinical and research interest of breast cancer, she has published articles on chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, retinoid therapy, monoclonal antibody therapy, antiangiogenesis agents, antisense strategies, and tumor vaccines for that disease. A major focus of her work is bridging the gap between the clinic and the bench in understanding the biology of breast disease and the mechanisms of resistance and sensitivity to targeted therapies.

Kevin Conlon, MD
Associate Professor in Medicine

Dr. Kevin Conlon is a graduate of Rush Medical College and the Rush Internal Medicine Residency. He received Medical Oncology training at the National Cancer Institute and continued as a Senior Investigator in the Biological Response Modifier Program. His research field of focus is immunotherapy and his laboratory efforts are directed at DNA immunization and antigen presenting cells. His clinical focus is malignant melanoma and kidney cancer.

Henry Fung, MD
Professor of Medicine and
Director - Stem Cell Transplantation
Henry Fung, MD, graduated from Chinese University School of Medicine. He did his internship at Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong and his residency at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong University. He completed his fellowships (in Hematology and BMT) at Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Center, British Columbia Cancer Control Agency, University of British Columbia, Canada, where he was invited to stay on as a faculty member for a number of years. From there, he moved to City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute and City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he remained as an attending and clinical investigator for seven years. Doctor Fung's most recent position has been Associate Clinical Professor and Director of Hematologic Malignancies, Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of California, Irvine. Doctor Fung has been awarded a number of grants including Lymphoma Society and NIH. He has and does serve as the Principal Investigator on several clinical trials, and has authored and co-authored over 100 articles. His research interests include: Treatment of Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Stem Cell Transplantation for B-cell Malignancies: Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma; Treatment of Myelodysplasia; Acute or Chronic Complication After Stem Cell Transplantation; and Pathogenesis of Therapy-related Leukemia.

Sefer Gezer, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Gezer is Director of the Coagulation, Thrombosis, and Anticoagulation Clinic; Director of Education in the Section of Hematology; and Coordinator for the Hematology Section of the Pathophysiology Course at Rush. He received his medical degree from Hacettepe Medical School in Ankara, Turkey, and subsequently completed his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Gezer is an active member of many medical societies, including the American College of Physicians, the Cell Kinetics Society, and the American Society of Hematology. He is a reviewer for the journals Archives of Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Gezer is the author and co-author of numerous articles that appear in such journals as Leukemia Research, Experimental Hematology, and Blood.

Stephanie A. Gregory, MD
Elodia Kehm Professor of Medicine
Director – Section of Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation

Dr. Gregory received her medical degree with honors from the Medical College of Pennsylvania-Hahnemann Medical School, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her postgraduate training included an internship, residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Also at Rush, she underwent three years of subspecialty training in hematology with a research grant from the Schweppe Foundation. Other accomplishments include: the “Mark H. Lepper, MD Society of Teachers,” the first woman to be appointed to the endowed chair as Director of Hematology at Rush, the first woman president of the Chicago Society of Internal Medicine, member of the “United Nations Security Council Commission of Experts Investigating War Crimes and Sexual Assaults against Women in the Former Yugoslavia.” Dr. Gregory is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Leukemia Research Foundation, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society of America and the Lymphoma Research Foundation. She is an active member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and numerous other medical professional associations.

Her research interests include non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, leukemias and myelomas, especially using novel approaches of immunotherapy. Dr. Gregory has been involved in several radioimmunotherapy trials in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She has chaired national programs concerning supportive care for cancer patients and is principal investigator for many clinical research trials. She has authored or coauthored 340 manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts.

William T. Leslie, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. William T. Leslie specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. He graduated from the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center - School of Medicine. He completed an Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Rush University Medical Center.

Sarah Lincoln, MD
Assistant Professor

Dr. Sarah Lincoln graduated from Rush Medical College and completed a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She sees primarily breast cancer patients and is a member of the Comprehensive Breast Center at Rush. Dr. Lincoln is the Associate Director of the Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program.

Deepak Malhotra, MD
Assistant Professor
Deepak Malhotra, MD, graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Loyola University of Chicago. He continued at Loyola to complete his Hematology-Oncology fellowship. In 1996 he completed his one-year Bone Marrow Transplant fellowship, also at Loyola. He served as Assistant Professor at Loyola for four years upon the completion of his fellowship, was an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University . He has participated in numerous conferences focusing on various aspects of SCT and Hematology, has 12 major-meeting presentations to his credit, and has published in both the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Blood.

Ruta Rao, MD
Assistant Professor
Dr. Rao graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and finished her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her fellowship training in Hematology and Oncology at Rush University Medical Center. Her primary clinical and research interests include breast and prostate cancer.

Jamile Shammo, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pathology

After obtaining her medical degree from the University of Aleppo in Syria, Dr. Shammo pursued a career in academic medicine in the United States. She first completed training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology followed by a residency in Internal Medicine, both at Evanston Hospital/Northwestern University. She then completed a fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at the University of Chicago with a special emphasis on hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplantation. Doctor Shammo joined Rush University in 2000, and has served as a venerable and highly participative member of our group. She has been on the Rush IRB for the last five years. The Division of Hematology – Oncology’s own Research Committee has benefited from her contributions as a member for the last year. She has taught numerous conferences for the fellows on hematopathology and other hematologic subjects. She is a devoted teacher who loves to share her knowledge to her peers, fellows and residents. . In just three years she received the Department of Medicine’s Teaching and Service Award.

Margaret C. Telfer, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Margaret Telfer has a long interest in coagulation disorders. Since 1971, she has directed a Hemophilia Care Center at Michael Reese Hospital, and in 1999 she was recruited by Rush University and Cook County Hospital to link their Hemophilia Care for adults and to join their existing Thrombosis Centers. From 1974 to 1990 she was Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of the Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois, and she continues to serve as a member of the Committee. She is a member of the Governor’s Hemophilia Advisory Committee of the State of Illinois Department of Public Aid and participated in the original design and passage by the State Legislature of the statutory requirements for this program. Her publications concern the care of persons with bleeding disorders. She helped establish the HIV clinic at Reese and now serves as a hematologic consultant with the Core Center at Cook County Hospital.

Dr. Telfer has served as program director for the Reese Hematology/Oncology Fellowship, has worked for many years with teaching programs for residents in Internal Medicine, and has been fortunate to work with medical students from Rush, University of Illinois, and University of Chicago, particularly during their third year clerkship in Internal Medicine. She was honored by the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine as the Laureate for 2000.

Lydia Usha MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine

Dr. Usha received her MD degree from St. Petersburg State Public Health Medical School in St. Petersburg, Russia. She underwent additional postgraduate training in Russia and Israel. She came to the United States in 1992 and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. She completed a fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She joined the staff of Rush University in 2000.

Dr. Usha has a professional affiliation with the American Society of Clinical Oncology; American Association for Cancer Research and the International Society of Cancer Risk Assessment and Management.

Dr. Usha’s primary clinical and research interest focuses in the treatment of breast and gynecologic cancers as well as testing for hereditary predisposition to cancer.

Parameswaran Venugopal, MD
Samuel Taylor III, MD, Professor of Oncology
Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Venugopal is Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program and Associate Director, Section of Hematology & Stem Cell Transplantation. He received his medical degree from Trivandrum Medical College, University of Kerala, in India and then trained in Hematology/ Oncology at the Tata Memorial Cancer Center in Bombay. Dr. Venugopal earned a postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Hematology at the University of London, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. Subsequently he completed residency and fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at Rush University Medical Center.

Dr. Venugopal is actively involved in clinical and laboratory research in leukemia and lymphoma. He has designed and conducted studies involving translational research combining monoclonal antibodies with cytotoxic and biologic agents in lymphoma, leukemia, and other hematological malignancies. The major focus of his research involves the development of novel methods of enhancing tumor response to biologic agents. In the laboratory, he has identified several cytokines that enhance the expression of tumor cell antigens, increasing their sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies. He has been an invited speaker at many medical institutions, both in the United States and abroad. He has authored or co-authored 91 full-length manuscripts, 7 book chapters, and over 240 abstracts.

Dr. Venugopal is an active member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association for Cancer Research. He has received awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology/American Association for Cancer Research, the Cure For Lymphoma Foundation and the Berlex Oncology Foundation. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Leukemia Society of America.

Victoria Villaflor, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Victoria Villaflor has been involved in lung cancer research since 2001. Dr. Villaflor received her M.D. from Rush in 1998. Before that she worked 10 years in research at Abbott Laboratories in Microbiology and Immunology. She completed her residency in internal medicine followed by a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Villaflor’s major research interests involve the study of combined modality treatment and molecular profiling of lung and head and neck cancers.

Janet Wolter, MD
Brian Piccolo Chair of Breast Cancer Research
Professor of Medicine

Dr. Wolter received a B.A. degree from Cornell College and her medical degree from the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine. She did her internship on the Osler Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and was the Chief Resident at the University of Illinois. She began her work in oncology with a special interest in breast cancer at what was then the Presbyterian Hospital.

She focuses 95% of her time on the treatment of patients with breast cancer. She has been active in both the ECOG and the NSABP, participating in protocol development and on the Executive Committees of both organizations. She has served on the CCIRC and on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the Division of Cancer Treatment. She was a founding member of the Comprehensive Breast Center at Rush. She still has a deep interest in the use of hormones in the treatment of breast cancer as well as in the development of strategies that may lead to cure even after the disease has recurred.