Marina Garassino MD

Dr. Marina Chiara Garassino, MD, is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Thoracic Programs in the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago. An internationally recognized thoracic medical oncologist, she specializes in the care of patients with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), mesothelioma, and thymic malignancies.

Dr. Garassino received her medical degree and completed her oncology training at the Università degli Studi di Milano, followed by clinical fellowships at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (INT) in Milan, and Christie’s Hospital in Manchester (UK). Before joining UChicago in 2021, she served as Chief of the Medical Thoracic Oncology Unit at INT Milan, one of Europe’s leading comprehensive cancer centers. She also holds a Master’s in Oncology Management from Bocconi University, reflecting her longstanding interest in redesigning cancer care pathways.

Her research has helped reshape global standards of care in lung cancer. She was the global Principal Investigator of the pivotal KEYNOTE-189 trial, which established chemo-immunotherapy as a first-line standard for metastatic NSCLC, and a leading investigator in landmark studies such as PACIFIC and KEYNOTE-671 that integrated immunotherapy into earlier stages of disease. Earlier in her career, she led the TAILOR trial, a practice-changing study demonstrating the limits of EGFR inhibitors in patients with wild-type EGFR, and contributed to the development of targeted therapies, including EGFR and MET inhibitors. She has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications spanning clinical trials, biomarkers, and translational oncology.

Dr. Garassino is also at the forefront of AI-driven and multimodal research in thoracic oncology. She co-leads I3LUNG, a large international effort to develop AI tools for individualized immunotherapy decisions. She has contributed to innovative work applying deep learning to rare tumors such as thymic epithelial malignancies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded and led TERAVOLT, a global registry examining outcomes of patients with thoracic cancers and COVID-19. A Fellow of ESMO and “The Lancet” Commissioner, she is the founder and honorary president of Women for Oncology Italy and the co-Chair for Women in Thoracic Oncology.