Elizabeth (Beth) Mittendorf, MD, PhD, MHCM, named chief of new Division of Breast Surgery

Elizabeth (Beth) Mittendorf, MD, PhD, MHCM was named chief of new Division of Breast Surgery. BIDMC and HMFP are establishing a Division of Breast Surgery within the Department of Surgery, and renowned surgeon and researcher Dr. Mittendorf will join our organization this fall to lead it. Dr. Mittendorf will play an important role in the collaboration among Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), BIDMC, and HMFP to establish New England’s only free-standing cancer hospital. The collaboration will bring together world-class clinicians to deliver transformational, precision medicine in an environment solely dedicated to defying cancer.

An accomplished clinician and researcher, Dr. Mittendorf is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Robert and Karen Hale Endowed Chair in Surgical Oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Earlier this month, she was named President-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals. She is also Co-Leader of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Co-Leader of the Breast Program for the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

Dr. Mittendorf is internationally recognized as a breast surgeon and as a groundbreaking innovator in immunotherapy for breast cancer. She was among the first to surmise that immunotherapy could have a role in caring for women with breast cancer and is now a standard of care in both early-stage and metastatic triple negative disease. She has authored more than 380 peer-reviewed papers and served as principal investigator on numerous clinical trials, including the phase III PRESENT (Prevention of Recurrence in Early-Stage, Node-Positive Breast Cancer with Low to Intermediate HER2 Expression with NeuVax Treatment) study. She also led a multicenter phase II trial examining the efficacy of CD8+ T cell-eliciting vaccine in combination with trastuzumab, which was based on preclinical data generated in her research laboratory and followed a phase I trial she conducted demonstrating the combination to be safe. In addition, Dr. Mittendorf’s laboratory was one of the first to show the expression of immune checkpoint molecule PD-L1 in triple negative breast cancer. Subsequently, she was invited to chair the steering committee and serve as the principal investigator on the IMPassion031 study, an international phase III trial that demonstrated improvements in rates of pathologic complete response in early-stage triple negative breast cancer patients administered the immunotherapeutic agent Atezolizumab in combination with chemotherapy in the preoperative setting.

Dr. Mittendorf’s current laboratory work is focused on investigating potential biomarkers of response and toxicity to preoperative immunotherapy plus chemotherapy and to determine the impact of that treatment on immunologic aspects of the tumor microenvironment in order to inform rational trials evaluating combination therapy.  She is also investigating the role of an individual’s systemic immune system in predicting response to therapy.

Dr. Mittendorf earned her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Duke University and her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she also completed her residency in General Surgery.  She then served on active duty in the U.S. Air Force before completing a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Mittendorf also holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a master’s degree in Healthcare Management degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.