Dr. Jana Portnow, MD

Neuro-oncologist Jana Portnow, M.D. (her pronouns: she/her), professor of medical oncology and co-director of City of Hope’s Brain Tumor Program, is a physician-researcher who has expertise in early-phase development of leading-edge therapies for brain tumors and has designed and conducted numerous clinical trials.She has obtained millions of dollars of research funding from the National Institutes of Health, including most recently as co-principal investigator of an NIH grant through which City of Hope became part of the National Cancer Institute’s Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network, a consortium of academic brain tumor centers that collaborate on preclinical and clinical studies to find better treatments for gliomas. Dr. Portnow has reviewed grant applications as a member of the NIH Clinical Oncology Study Section. She currently serves as Vice Chair person of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s panel on Guidelines for the Treatment of CNS Cancers.Her research cultivates …innovations against brain cancer, such as neural stem cells that act as a homing device to deliver therapies directly to tumors in the brain, including oncolytic viruses, which are genetically engineered to attack cancer. Dr. Portnow’s slate of clinical trials includes leading first-in-human studies of neural stem cells for aggressive gliomas and directly administered into the brain CAR T cell therapy, an immune treatment being investigated for its ability to fight cancer that spreads to the brain.The grace and resilience of brain cancer patients are a daily source of inspiration for Dr. Portnow. Understanding that the disease they face affects the organ that is essential to our sense of self, she is determined to do everything she can to help these patients.Dr. Portnow earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester, then pursued a residency in internal medicine at Temple University, where she was chief resident, and then completed fellowships in medical oncology and neuro-oncology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute.