E. Gabriela Chiorean, MD

What inspired you to become an oncologist?

When I was in high school, my mother fell sick with multiple sclerosis. While caring for her, I developed a strong passion to help people who are suffering in any way I could, which is why I entered medicine. During my internal medicine residency, I witnessed firsthand the courage and resilience of cancer patients and really came to see them as my role models. Because of their perseverance, I chose to dedicate my career to compassionately care for people with this disease. I also focus on clinical and bench-to-bedside research that can lead to the discovery of new cancer treatments and biomarkers to predict their efficacy.

What’s your approach to cancer care?

I strive to treat you with my utmost dedication, respect and compassion. It’s my duty to provide you with up-to-date comprehensive care and treatment options while emphasizing your individual needs and values. I truly appreciate the role of multidisciplinary teams in delivering the best patient care. For over 15 years, I’ve been involved in hundreds of clinical and translational research projects, most of them collaborative and multidisciplinary. I believe a team effort, with you as the centerpiece, sharing ideas and knowledge, leads to the most successful results and forms the most creative environment for novel discoveries.

Provider Background

Area of Clinical Practice
Gastrointestinal cancers

Gastrointestinal Diseases
As a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine, and physician at Fred Hutch, I have expertise in treating patients with pancreatic, colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancers, as well as long-standing experience in experimental therapeutics and clinical trials.

I hope to see the development of easy and intelligent tests that will detect cancer earlier, predict the best treatments and improve our understanding of how to help patients with incurable cancers live longer and have the best quality lives.