Al B. Benson III, MD

Research Program

• Translational Research in Malignancy (TRIM)

Email

a-benson( at )northwestern.edu

Cancer-Focused Research

Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Director for Cooperative Groups at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research is primarily in the areas of gastrointestinal cancer clinical trials, cancer clinical trials, biologic therapies, phase I cancer clinical trials and cancer guideline development. He has authored or coauthored numerous reports, reviews and book chapters focusing on these topics. His research in biologics, cancer therapy, and cancer prevention has been awarded funding from a variety of sources including the NIH.

Benson is a recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award (Fellow of ASCO) and has served on a number of committees. He has been a member of the Task Force on Quality of Cancer Care, the co-chair of ASCO's Colorectal Cancer Guidelines Subcommittee, the Stage II Colon Cancer Guidelines Panel and the Guidelines Panel for use of Radiofrequency Ablation for Colorectal Cancer Hepatic Metastases. He was recently appointed Deputy Chair for Policy and Implementation by the ECOG-ACRIN Research Group (EA), and serves as chair of the EA Data Safety Monitoring Committee, co-chair of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) Community Advisory Committee, co-chair of the Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee, and the immediate past chair of EA's Gastrointestinal Cancer Committee. He is also a member of the NCI Rectal/Anal Cancers and the Colon Cancer Task Forces, as well as chair of the International Rare Cancers Initiative (IRCI), Anal Cancers Committee, and a member of the Small Intestinal Cancer Committee. He is an executive committee member and past-chair of the Board of Directors of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and a member of the Board of Directors of the NCCN Foundation. He is the chair of both the NCCN Hepatobiliary Guidelines Panel and of the Colon, Rectal and Anal Panel, and a member of the Pancreatic Cancer and Neuroendocrine Panels. Benson is also chair of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium Steering Committee. He is a past president of the International Society of GI Oncology (ISGIO), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Patient Advocate Foundation, the National Patient Advocate Foundation, and a medical advisory board member for Debbie's Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer and Fight Colorectal Cancer.