Wendy L. Frankel MD

Dr. Wendy Frankel is Kurtz Chair and Distinguished Professor of Pathology, and Chair of the Department of Pathology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She also serves as Director of the GI/Liver Pathology fellowship. She graduated from medical school at the University of Michigan in 1988 and trained in surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from 1988-93. She then trained in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of California at San Diego and did her Surgical Pathology fellowship at UC San Francisco from 1993-97. She has been a faculty member of OSUWMC since 1997.

Dr. Frankel’s responsibilities at OSUWMC, in addition to her leadership roles, include clinical service in the GI pathology division and teaching residents and fellows. Her primary area of research interest is colorectal carcinoma where she has worked since 1998 in the area of colon cancer genetics. She was part of the team that carried out the Columbus-area HNPCC study to determine the prevalence of Lynch syndrome among all newly diagnosed colorectal and endometrial cancer patients. The results of this study and subsequent publications appear to be changing the standard of care for colorectal cancer patients in the United States and the world as many institutions and some entire countries have now adopted our recommendations to screen these patients for Lynch syndrome using immunohistochemistry staining for the four mismatch repair genes. She is currently part of the team of researchers involved in the Ohio Colorectal Cancer Prevention Initiative (OCCPI).

She is active in national and international organizations such as the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP). She has served in several leadership roles for USCAP including the Education Committee, Board of Directors, Executive Board, Treasurer and now President. In addition, she is a past president of the Rodger C. Haggitt Gastrointestinal Pathology Society. She is the GI Pathology Cadre leader for Alliance for Clinical Trials and Oncology, formerly known as, CALGB. In addition she has published greater than 220 papers, and multiple chapters, and given numerous national and international lectures focusing on GI pathology. She has been involved in multiple grants, won many teaching awards and recently received the OSU COM Mazzaferri-Ellison Society of Master Clinicians award.