News

Burtness Joins Medical Science Division at Fox Chase Cancer Center

PHILADELPHIA (December 12, 2005) -- Medical oncologist, Barbara Burtness, M.D., has become a member of Fox Chase Cancer Center's division of medical science. She is an accomplished clinical investigator whose primary research focus is on gastrointestinal and head and neck cancer therapy. Specifically, Burtness' expertise is in the treatment of pancreatic, esophageal, colorectal and head and neck cancers.

Before joining Fox Chase, Burtness was associate professor in the department of internal medicine, and director of the gastrointestinal oncology unit at Yale University. Burtness is the track leader for the gastrointestinal cancer- non-colorectal track in the American Society of Clinical Oncology Scientific Program Committee.

Burtness is on the medical advisory council for The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Inc. (PanCan), which is the first national patient advocacy organization for the pancreatic cancer community. She is also chair of the Oncology Expert Committee of the United States Parmacopeia (USP) and serves on the USP Model Guidelines Committee, establishing the standard drug classifications used in the Medicare part D benefit.

Board-certified in medical oncology and internal medicine, Burtness is a member of the gastrointestinal and head and neck committees in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. She serves as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology (gastrointestinal oncology).

Burtness received her medical degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and completed her residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In addition, she has completed a fellowship in hematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.