Cora Sternberg
Cora N. Sternberg is an American medical oncologist and academic physician specializing in genitourinary cancers. She is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as Clinical Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital. She has been included in Stanford–Elsevier’s list of the top 2% of most-cited scientists worldwide and is a recognized expert on Doximity.
Early life and education
Sternberg was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.D. from the same institution. She completed her internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center and fellowships in medical oncology and hematology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, in New York. She later obtained a second medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza.Career
After early academic and clinical roles at Stanford University, Cornell University Medical College, and Memorial Sloan Kettering, Sternberg moved to Italy, where she was appointed Chief of Medical Oncology at San Camillo–Forlanini Hospital in Rome in 2002, a position she held until 2018. During this time, she also served as adjunct professor of oncology at La Sapienza University and maintained active roles in international oncology organizations.In November 2018, she joined Weill Cornell Medicine as Clinical Director of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, where she has helped develop and implement multiomic tumor profiling, AI-enhanced diagnostics, and personalized cancer therapy strategies. She is an attending physician at NewYork–Presbyterian and liaison to the Meyer Cancer Center.
In 2004, Sternberg founded the Samuel and Barbara Sternberg Cancer Research Foundation, named after her parents, to support cancer research and promote precision oncology in Italy.
Research and clinical contributions
Sternberg is recognized for her work in clinical trials and drug development across genitourinary malignancies. She has authored over 400 peer-reviewed articles, contributed to over 80 book chapters, and co-edited or guest-edited six oncology textbooks. She currently serves in editorial roles as:- Section Editor, Urologic Oncology
- Associate Editor, Bladder Cancer Clinical Trials Corner
- Genitourinary Editor, ESMO Open – Cancer Horizons
- Associate Editor, Frontiers in Oncology
Bladder cancer
She developed the M-VAC and dose-dense M-VAC chemotherapy regimens for urothelial carcinoma. As principal investigator for the EORTC 30994 study, she demonstrated the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy following cystectomy. She also led the SAUL trial of atezolizumab and participated in the landmark JAVELIN Bladder 100 trial, which led to approval of avelumab as maintenance therapy in advanced bladder cancer.Prostate cancer
Sternberg helped lead the AFFIRM and PROSPER trials of enzalutamide and played a critical role in the development of abiraterone acetate. Her work contributed directly to FDA and EMA approvals of these agents for castration-resistant prostate cancer. She was also involved in developing and assessing satraplatin, tasquinimod, and darolutamide, and has studied androgen receptor resistance mechanisms and lineage plasticity through translational research at Weill Cornell.Renal cell carcinoma
She served as a principal investigator in studies of pazopanib, including the pivotal registration trial and the subsequent COMPARZ and PISCES trials comparing it to sunitinib. Her work has also included clinical evaluation of tivozanib, cabozantinib, lenvatinib, and dovitinib, and exploration of immune checkpoint blockade in kidney cancer.Honors and awards
- Fellow, American College of Physicians
- Folke Edsmyr Memorial Award, Karolinska Institute
- Grande Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana
- Premio Minerva for Scientific Achievement
- ESMO Award for Outstanding Contribution to Medical Oncology
- Pieter de Mulder Award, EIKCS
- Excellence in Oncology Award, Oncology Times
- Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Awarded by: Italian Government