Akhil Chawla MD, FACS

Dr. Chawla is a Hepatopancreatobiliary and Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncologist at Northwestern Medicine, a Clinical Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and a full member of the Translational Research in Solid Tumors Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. He is actively involved in the design and implementation of multi-institutional clinical trials on a national level. He is a principal investigator of multiple oncology-related clinical trials within Northwestern Medicine as well as nationally. He is the director of the Northwestern Medicine Surgical Oncology Tumor Bank, Biorepository, and Translational Research Laboratory in the West Region. His primary areas of investigational focus include clinical trials, biomarker design, and response assessment of cytotoxic and immune systemic therapies in gastrointestinal malignancies. He completed a two-year National Institutes of Health-funded research fellowship focusing on solid tumor Immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He has completed his clinical residency training in Surgery at Case Western Reserve University, and fellowship training in the Harvard Combined Complex Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Together, with his clinical and research efforts, he continues to dedicate his work to advancing the treatment of patients afflicted with cancer.