Leena Gandhi MD PhD

Dr. Leena Gandhi received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and her M.D. from New York University prior to completing postgraduate training at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She was a thoracic oncologist working in Early Drug Development at DFCI until 2016 when she moved to NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center to serve as the Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology.  She has focused her research on novel drug development and biomarkers for selection in lung cancer with a particular focus on immuno-oncology. She led pivotal studies demonstrating the utility of PDL1 as a biomarker for efficacy of anti-PD1 agents in lung cancer and studies demonstrating the value of combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. She served as Vice President of Immuno-Oncology Development at Eli Lilly leading the development of novel immuno-oncology agents across cancer types and returned to DFCI in 2020 as the Director of the Center for Cancer Therapeutic Innovation, an integrated clinical/translational research center that brings together specialized cancer expertise to develop and conduct innovative early phase clinical trials spanning multiple malignancies.