October 14, 2025
We are pleased to announce that Dan P. Zandberg, MD, has agreed to serve as Associate Director (AD) for Clinical Research at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, effective October 1, 2025.
In his new role as AD for Clinical Research, Dr. Zandberg will work closely with Clinical Research Service (CRS) leadership and staff to roll out new initiatives designed to enhance our clinical trial accruals and portfolio management. He will have the following authorities: Name and oversee (with UPMC Hillman Director) Disease/Modality Center leaders; manage and enforce clinical trial conduct by physicians; and help to set and accomplish the CRS vision.
Dr. Zandberg has been at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center since 2018 as an associate professor of medicine and a medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of head and neck and thyroid cancers. He has become an integral member of the leadership of our cancer center as Director of the Head and Neck and Thyroid Cancer disease sections for the division of Hematology/Oncology and the Medical Oncology Co-Leader of the UPMC Hillman Head and Neck Cancer Program. Dr. Zandberg previously served as director of clinical affairs and more recently Associate Division Chief for Clinical Affairs for the Division of Malignant Hematology and Medical Oncology. He is a member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program – one of our NCI cancer center support grant research programs. His main research focus is the development of clinical trials with immunotherapy to improve patient outcomes in patients with head and neck cancer.
Dr. Zandberg is an active member of the scientific enterprise. He has extensive experience as a PI in the development, conduct, and leadership of pharmaceutical, cooperative group, and investigator-initiated trials. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, including multiple first author publications in the Journal of Clinical Oncology related to clinical trials he has led, with oral abstract presentations at numerous national and international meetings. He serves on NCI task forces and practice guideline committees for head and neck and thyroid cancers. He is also active in teaching, mentoring, and through service at UPMC Hillman and in scientific societies.
His current funded research activities include Co-PI of an NIH R01 grant, “Small extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of prognosis and response to therapy in head and neck cancer,” and he also
Dr. Zandberg’s work has been acknowledged through numerous honors and awards. His recent awards include the 2019 National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award; 2019 HemOnc Today’s Next Gen Innovators; 2020 Leo Criep, M.D. Excellence in Patient Care Award; and the 2022 UPMC Hillman Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Dr. G David Roodman Excellence in Mentoring Award. He has also been a Castle Connelly and Pittsburgh Magazine Top Doctor since 2020.
He is board certified in medical oncology, by the American Board on Internal Medicine. Dr. Zandberg earned his MD from Jefferson Medical College and went on to do an internal medicine residency and serve as Chief Medical Resident at George Washington University Medical Center. He completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at University of Maryland Greenbaum Comprehensive Cancer Center before staying on faculty there in 2012 on a K12 grant and earned a certificate in clinical research from the University of Maryland.
