Stephen J. Chanock, M.D.

Biography

Dr. Stephen Chanock is a leading expert in the discovery and characterization of cancer susceptibility regions in the human genome. He has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions to our understanding of common inherited genetic variants associated with cancer risk and outcomes, including the Niehaus, Southorth, Weissenbach Award in Clinical Cancer Genetics, the Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture, and the AACR-American Cancer Society Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention. He is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Association of American Physicians, the American Epidemiological Society, the AACR Academy, the National Academy of Medicine, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Chanock received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1983 and completed clinical training in pediatrics, pediatric infectious diseases, and pediatric hematology/oncology and research training in molecular genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. Dr. Chanock served for 25 years as the Medical Director for Camp Fantastic, a week-long recreational camp for pediatric cancer patients, which is a joint venture of the NCI and Special Love, Inc.

From 2001-2007, he was a tenured investigator in the Genomic Variation Section of the Pediatric Oncology Branch in the NCI Center for Cancer Research. He also served as co-chair of the NCI Genetics, Genomics, and Proteomics Faculty for five years. In 2001, he was appointed as Chief of the Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory (formerly Core Genotyping Facility), and in 2007 as Chief of the Laboratory of Translational Genomics, both within the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). Dr. Chanock co-led the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility project. From 2012 to 2013, he also served as Acting Co-Director of the NCI Center for Cancer Genomics and was appointed Director of DCEG in 2013. 

Selected Presentations

Contemporary Clinical Medicine: Great Teachers: Chasing Genetics of Susceptibility to Cancer: An Engaging and Revealing Odyssey, NIH Clinical Center Ground Rounds, April 2021

The Complexity of Genetic Susceptibility to Cancer,  Jeffrey M. Trent Lecture in Cancer Research, National Human Genome Research Institute, February 2015

For more information on Dr. Chanock's research interests, please see the Laboratory of Genetic Susceptibility page. 

Chanock Explores Genetics of Cancer Susceptibility

Dr. Chanock gave a Clinical Center Grand Rounds Great Teachers lecture and discussed his professional journey, career advice, a history lesson, and decades of research. Read about Dr. Chanock's talk.

TCGA Invited Perspective

Dr. Chanock discusses the role of The Cancer Genome Atlas in understanding how germline variation informs the landscape of somatic alterations in cancer. Read Dr. Chanock's full post in the TCGA "Perspectives" blog.

Dr. Chanock and Fellows at Camp Fantastic

Dr. Chanock served as the medical director for Camp Fantastic for 25 years. Read about 2019 Camp Fantastic.