Sidney Kimmel Medical College

Department of Medical Oncology

Our nationally renowned cancer experts provide care for patients with all types of cancers, ranging from common cancers such as lymphomas, lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers, to far less common cancers such as melanomas originating in the eye and sarcomas. Innovative therapies are being evaluated through collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, various pharmaceutical companies, and programs developed within our department and/or the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson. Vaccine development and other forms of immunotherapy are under active investigation. Our medical oncologists also perform autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantations for selected forms of cancer.

Training the next generation of physicians and scientists, including the next generation of thought leaders, is also an important part of our mission. Our physicians provide didactic training and serve as role models for our students, residents, and fellows, allowing them to develop their clinical and investigative skills under the watchful eye of a seasoned practitioner. 

In all our efforts, our goal is to provide the best available today, while making sure something even better is available tomorrow.

Our Mission

• To provide state-of-the-art care in our discipline while simultaneously working to improve the state of the art through clinical and bench investigation, advancing the field rather than simply adopting the work of others.
• To ensure that our patients will be the beneficiaries of outstanding care provided in a warm, compassionate, and stress-reducing environment.
• To provide physicians in training and medical students with an education reflective of high standards; to conduct ourselves as role models whom they can emulate; and to help instill in them a similar passion to always strive to be the best physicians they can be.

Department News

July Brings Exciting Growth: Welcoming New Faculty & Celebrating Promotions

Welcome Dr. Hoda Badr, PhD, our new Division Director of Population Science and Associate Director of Population Science at SKCCC, and Dr. Min Woo Hwang, MD, to our Bone Marrow Transplant Unit as an Inpatient Hospitalist.

Congratulations to Jennifer Johnson, MD, PhD, has been named Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee (PRMC) Chair. Dr. Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Medical Oncology and assumes her new role after previously serving as PRMC Vice Chair.  The Chair of the PRMC, which is part of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Clinical Trials Office, is primarily responsible for ensuring that all cancer-related clinical trials have proper scientific merit, biostatistical design, and justification of accrual goals.  As an oncologist, Dr. Johnson is involved in translational research studying the tumor microenvironment and metabolism and the development of clinical trials to evaluate novel therapeutics that target cancer metabolism and immunotherapy. The primary focus of her research is understanding the role of the tumor microenvironment in head and neck cancer both from a metabolic and immunologic perspective.

Also, Gina Keiffer, MD, will fill the role of PRMC Vice Chair with Dr. Johnson’s move to Chair. Dr. Keiffer is an Assistant Professor of Medical Oncology whose cancer-related research interest focuses on early-phase clinical trials utilizing novel targeted agents and novel combinations with conventional chemotherapy in myeloid malignancies. She’s also an active member of the Immune Cell Regulation and Targeting Program. She received her undergraduate degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan and medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College.