Susan O’Brien, MD

Susan O’Brien, MD is the associate director for Clinical Science at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the medical director of the Sue and Ralph Stern Center for Cancer Clinical Trials and Research, Professor of Medicine in the Department of Hematology and Oncology and the endowed chair of Cancer Clinical Science at University of California, Irvine. She earned her medical degree from and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (currently known as the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences). She completed her fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX where she spent over 30 years of her career advancing science in cancer, specifically in the field of leukemia.

Dr. O’Brien has been a principal investigator and driving force behind more than 40 funded clinical research protocols, 30 invited articles, numerous book chapters and abstracts, and has authored more than 800 articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is currently the hematology executive officer for SWOG (formerly known as the Southwest Oncology Group Executive Committee) and the hematology editor for the journal Cancer. She serves on the Medical Scientific Advisory Board and the Technology Acceleration Program Committee for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Year after year, she is featured and ranked nationally at the top in her field by America’s Top Doctors, Super Doctors, and America’s Top Doctors for Cancer. Most notably she is the President-Elect of the Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) and has been named the 2020 Giant of Cancer Care in Leukemia.