Host Bios

Edward Chu, MD

Dr. Edward Chu is Deputy Director and the Chief of the Section of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Chu is internationally known for his expertise in colorectal cancer and, along with his research team, is actively developing novel medications and strategies for the treatment of colorectal cancer and other malignancies.

A graduate of Brown University with BS, MMS, and MD degrees, Dr. Chu remained at Brown to complete his residency training in Internal Medicine. He then moved to the National Cancer Institute where he completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology and subsequently served as a Senior Clinical Investigator. In 1996 Dr. Chu was recruited to Yale to assume the positions of Chief of Medical Oncology and Director of the Cancer Clinical and Research Program at the West Haven Veterans Administration Hospital.

Among the many national posts he has held, Dr. Chu served a three-year term as Chairman of the National Institute of Health's Experimental Therapeutics I Study Section, which determines which potential new approaches to cancer treatment merit federally funding. He is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Colorectal Cancer and is a current member of several editorial boards of cancer journals focusing on basic science and clinical research. Dr. Chu is the author of the Physicians' Cancer Chemotherapy Drug Manual, which provides a comprehensive review of all major cancer drugs and drug treatment regimens currently used in daily clinical practice by medical oncologists and health care professionals. The manual, now in its sixth edition, is recognized as a leading publication in the cancer field. Dr. Chu is also the Chairman of the International Colorectal Congress, an international meeting that brings together leaders in oncology from the United States, Europe, and Asia and focuses on the latest developments in the management and treatment of colorectal cancer.

Dr. Francine Foss

Dr. Francine Foss is a Professor of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and an internationally recognized clinician and clinical researcher with expertise in adult lymphomas and in stem cell allotransplantation.

Through her clinical trials, Dr. Foss’ recent clinical research in the field of stem cell transplantation has received national acclaim.  With the introduction of intravenous infusions of autologous immature dendritic cells before an allogeneic bone marrow transplant, she has reduced the development of graft-versus-host disease in patients from the average of 40-50 percent to only 15 percent.  These findings, initially revealed through a study of 104 lymphoma patients in her care, have led to the initiation of two NCI-sponsored trials to confirm these results in patients with lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndrome undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplant.  For this important advance, Dr. Foss’s group received the George Santos Award from the American Society of Bone Marrow Transplantation in 2004.

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Foss received her Medical Degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  She completed her internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital before going to the National Cancer Institute, where she completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology and served as a Senior Investigator and Chairman of the T-Cell Lymphoma Program. 

Dr. Foss chaired the plenary session on T Cell Lymphoma at the last two International Meetings on Lymphoma and has been an invited speaker at over 40 national and international conferences and annual meetings over the last three years.  In addition to her authorship of numerous original articles, reviews, or book chapters, Dr. Foss serves on the editorial board of the journal, Clinical Lymphoma.