The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center and its Foundation have awarded renowned surgical oncologist and physician-scientist Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, the 2025 Simon M. Shubitz Cancer Prize and Lectureship for her research on the role of genetics and inflammation in the development of cancer and her leadership in oncology clinical research.
Bertagnolli received the award and delivered the lecture, “Cancer – It Matters Who You Are and Where You Live,” on Oct. 27 at the University of Chicago. During the lecture, she discussed the many ways that our physical and social environments profoundly influence our health. She also highlighted the issue of worsening disparities in outcomes for cancer treatment across different geographic regions of the US, and called for more nationwide research to better understand how to eliminate suffering from cancer in all communities.
“It is a tremendous honor to be invited to give the Simon M. Shubitz Lecture at the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center,” Bertagnolli said. “Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with so many leaders from this outstanding institution – clinical researchers, molecular biologists, data scientists and experts in care delivery. All of them exemplify the qualities that Dr. Shubitz considered essential for the truly great physician.”
Bertagnolli currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow in Healthcare Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. From 2023 to 2025, she served as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the Biden Administration. She was the first surgeon and second woman to helm NIH, the largest funder of biomedical and behavioral research in the world. She previously served as the 16th director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the federal government's principal agency for cancer research and training.
Before accepting the NCI position, she was the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“This honor is well deserved for Dr. Bertagnolli, who has spent her career bringing advances in research to benefit patients,” said Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Through her national leadership roles, she has made major contributions to the fight against cancer.”
Throughout her career, Bertagnolli has been at the forefront of the field of clinical oncology. Her innovative research has focused on gastrointestinal tumor biology, striving to develop patient-specific cancer prevention and treatment strategies. Bertagnolli specifically investigated the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene function and its regulation of colorectal cancer. Her clinical practice was dedicated to patients with germline APC gene mutations.
She has led translational science initiatives within the NCI-funded National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) and served as the chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a NCTN member organization. Separately, she is president of Alliance Foundation Trials, a research organization that partners with the pharmaceutical industry to develop and conduct cancer clinical trials using non-NCI funding sources—allowing more flexibility in times of limited federal funding.
Over the past decade, Bertagnolli has championed collaborative initiatives to transform the data infrastructure for clinical research.
Born and raised in Wyoming, Bertagnolli has also contributed to national efforts to improve access to care for cancer patients living in rural areas.
Her many professional honors include the Leonardo Da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award in Health and Science from the National Italian American Foundation, the Charles M. Blach Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology, and the Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leadership Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Bertagnolli is a past president and chair of the board of directors for ASCO and served on the board of directors of the American Cancer Society and the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Bertagnolli was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021 and in 2025, she was nominated as the Academy’s next and first female president.
She graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree and attended medical school at the University of Utah. She trained in surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and was a research fellow in tumor immunology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The lecture is named for Simon M. Shubitz, MD, a distinguished alumnus of the University of Chicago and a dedicated physician, humanitarian and philanthropist. He created the Cancer Prize and Lectureship in 1978 to recognize the scientific excellence of leaders in cancer research.
Previous recipients of the Shubitz Prize include Peter Nowell, MD, co-discoverer of the Philadelphia Chromosome; Judah Folkman, MD, a pioneer in angiogenesis; Harold E. Varmus, MD, viral oncologist and winner of a Nobel Prize for discovering retroviral oncogenes; and Mary-Claire King, PhD, a geneticist who discovered the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes linked to inherited breast cancer.
