Dr. Melinda Telli, Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the Director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Stanford Cancer Institute and Associate Director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center. Dr. Telli’s research focuses on the development of novel therapies for the treatment of triple-negative and hereditary cancer. Her work has focused on the validation of homologous recombination deficiency biomarkers to help identify patients with sporadic triple-negative breast cancer that may specifically derive benefit from DNA repair defect-targeted therapies. In addition to her involvement in the clinical development of PARP inhibitors for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation-associated cancers, she has also explored the use of ‘beyond BRCA’ DNA repair gene mutations as potential biomarkers to select patients for PARP inhibitor therapy in the advanced disease setting.

Dr. Telli received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania Magna Cum Laude and medical degree from George Washington University with Distinction. She completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University, and then stayed at Stanford to pursue fellowship training in Medical Oncology. She has served on numerous American Society of Clinical Oncology Committees and currently serves as a Komen Scholar, member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Breast Cancer Guideline Panel and member of the Journal of Clinical Oncology Editorial Board. Dr. Telli is the recipient of a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Translational Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2008), American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award (2009), Susan G. Komen for the Cure Leadership Award (2015 and 2018), Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Hero Award (2018), and Susan G. Komen SF Bay Area Visionary Award (2019). She has garnered multiple teaching accolades and is a repeat recipient of the Stanford Division of Oncology Teaching Award.