Barbara Burtness, MD

Barbara Burtness, MD is Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) at the Yale School of Medicine and Interim Associate Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Yale Cancer Center. She serves as Co-Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program, Leader of the Disease Aligned Research for Head and Neck Cancer, and Director of the Yale Head and Neck Specialized Program of Research Excellence. Dr. Burtness is internationally recognized for her research in head and neck cancer. She chairs the ECOG-ACRIN Cooperative Group Head and Neck Cancer Therapeutics Committee, and leads national and international trials of targeted therapy in head and neck cancer. Her laboratory studies synthetic lethal therapeutic strategies in head and neck cancer and the targeting of aurora kinase A to overcome adaptive resistance to EGFR inhibition and - in lung cancer- to direct KRAS inhibition.