{"id":933142,"date":"2026-10-14T21:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933142\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T21:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T21:02:13","slug":"leading-cancer-researcher-dies-at-47-from-aggressive-gi-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/933142\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading Cancer Researcher Dies at 47 From Aggressive GI Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rachna Shroff, a physician-scientist who spent much of her career researching treatments for gastrointestinal cancers, has died at the age of 47. She briefly battled an aggressive form of the disease she was trying to cure.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Shroff, associate director of clinical investigations at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, was diagnosed with cancer of an unknown origin after she developed a swollen lymph node in May. By the end of the month, it had spread elsewhere in her body, and testing showed it had likely originated in her stomach or intestine.<\/p>\n

Her medical team initially thought it was lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, but it was later confirmed to be terminal adenocarcinoma, which grows in the cells that line the organs.<\/p>\n

Still, she attended a major cancer research conference just days after her diagnosis so she could continue to raise awareness of recent clinical breakthroughs.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.Rachna Shroff speaking at the 2025 conference for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.\u00a9 ASCO\/Todd Buchanan 2025 \/ Todd Buchanan<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a journey,\u201d Shroff told NBC News\u2019 Anne Thompson of her diagnosis in a Zoom interview shortly before her death. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire life trying to eradicate cancer, primarily pancreatic cancer, but also liver cancers.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no cure for her condition, which was challenging for her and her family \u2014\u00a0husband Puneet, son Sachin, 13, and daughter Simran, 17 \u2014 to wrap their minds around, especially since she\u2019d done so much to give other patients more options and time.<\/p>\n

In her work at University of Arizona, she helped move forward hundreds of clinical trials, Dr. Dan Theodorescu, endowed chair for the director of the cancer center and Shroff\u2019s boss, told Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really exciting because she\u2019s been able to build the clinical trial operation very effectively. And … what she\u2019s done for the institution, in addition to doing her own clinical trial and seeing patients, she also managed to recruit some very, very bright young people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of the legacy that Shroff said she hopes will \u201coutlive\u201d her, calling it her \u201cNo. 1 credo.\u201d<\/p>\n

An award for young cancer researchers<\/a> has also been created in her name, with $1.35 million already raised by friends, colleagues and supporters to ensure the award continues for years to come.<\/p>\n

Beyond her career\u2019s lasting impact, Shroff said her main priority was her children: \u201cThat\u2019s really all that matters here to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ShroffShroff and her family.<\/p>\n

Simran and Sachin each shared with Thompson the quality they most love about their mom.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer tenacity … all she does is she pushes through whatever, and she figures out how to do it and how to be successful personally and professionally, and I really admire that,\u201d Simran said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would probably say just how loving she is,\u201d Sachin added.<\/p>\n

Rachna and Puneet Shroff were just months away from their 20th wedding anniversary when she passed. <\/p>\n

\u201cPuneet has been the reason I\u2019ve marched forward. And his ability to understand my vantage point, and his ability … to just stand by my side,\u201d Shroff said.<\/p>\n

\"RachnaRachna Shroff.<\/p>\n

Although they weren\u2019t able to celebrate this major milestone together, they did try to embrace the small but joyful moments these past few months, such as Samrin visiting colleges and Sachin\u2019s baseball games.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have no cares, so to speak, in the world, and then all of them at your feet all at once, that\u2019s both overwhelming,\u201d Puneet said at the time. \u201cBut it also teaches you resilience, and I hope that teaches our children resilience. I hope, for Rachna\u2019s sake, it gives her strength, courage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Rachna Shroff, a physician-scientist who spent much of her career researching treatments for gastrointestinal cancers, has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":933143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-933142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}