Susan O’Brien MD is the recently retired Associate Medical Director of the Chao Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California at Irvine, as well as the Medical Director of the Sue and Ralph Stern Center for Clinical Trials and Research. She is currently a Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. She received her medical degree from the University of Dentistry and Medicine in New Jersey (now known as the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences) and completed her internal medicine residency there as well. She subsequently completed her oncology fellowship at UT MD Anderson and joined the faculty after completion of her fellowship. When she left MD Anderson in 2015, she was the Ashbel Smith Professor of Medicine in the Department of Leukemia.
Dr. O’Brien has authored over 900 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has given over 500 lectures in national and international conferences and academic institutions. She is considered a leading Leukemia expert world-wide (expertscape.com) with an H index of 170. She is listed in the 1% of the most highly cited and influential researchers in the world. Her research is credited for many and sustained contributions to the treatment of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) as well as Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). Year after year, she is ranked nationally at the top in her field by America’s Top Doctors, Super Doctors, and America’s Top Doctors for Cancer.
Dr. O’Brien also serves on the SWOG Hematology Executive (formerly known as the Southwest Oncology Group Executive Committee) and is a Board member of the CLL Society. In 2020 she received the Giants of Cancer Care Award for Leukemia. In 2023 She received the Rai/Binet medal for Outstanding Research in CLL.
