Tania Cortas, M.D.

Tania Cortas, M.D., C.P.E., joined City of Hope^® in 2023. As a medical oncologist and hematologist, Dr. Cortas focuses her practice on the treatment and management of all types and stages of cancer, with expertise in a variety of malignancies, including breast, thoracic, gastrointestinal, genitourinary and both malignant and benign hematologic conditions. She is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

After receiving her medical degree from American University of Beirut Faculty of Medicine, she pursued an internal medicine residency followed by hematology and oncology fellowship training at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University. She is currently triple board certified in internal medicine, hematology and clinical oncology.

Dr. Cortas is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology and American Association for Physician Leadership. She has received various awards, including Phoenix Top Doctor for several years. As a physician scientist, Dr. Cortas is passionate about leveraging precision medicine to personalize treatment, offer leading-edge protocols and identify potential clinical trials for her patients.

• Dowlati A., Chapman R., Fu P., Ness A., Cortas T., Patrick L, Reynolds N, Xu N, Levitan N, Remick S. Randomized phase II trial of different schedules of administration of rebeccamycin analogue as second line therapy in non-small cell lung cancer. Invest New Drugs. 2005 Jul 18
• Cortas T, Eisenberg R, Fu Pingfu, Kern J, Patrick L, Dowlati A. Activation State (phosphorylated ) EGFR and STAT3 as prognostic markers in resected Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Lung Cancer 2007; 55(3):349-55
• Dowlati A, Subbiah S, Cooney M, Rutherford K, Mekhail T, Fu P, Chapman R, Ness A, Cortas T, Saltzman J, Levitan N . Phase II Trial of Thalidomide as a Maintenance Therapy for Extensive Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer after Response to Chemotherapy. Lung cancer 2007, 56(3): 377-81.

Abstracts

• T. Cortas, A. Ness, R. Chapman, S. Remick, N. Levitan, C. Schmidt, L. Patrick, N. Xu, P. Ivy, A. Dowlati. Randomized phase II trial of 2 different administration schedules of rebeccamycin analogue as a second line treatment in NSCLC. ASCO 2003/Abstract no: 2686
• T. Cortas, R. Eisenberg, P. Fu, J. Robke, J. A. Kern, A. Dowlati.Activation State (phosphorylated ) EGFR and STAT3 as prognostic markers in resected Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. ASCO 2005/Abstract no: 7090
• T. Cortas, A. Kluge, D. Nethery, J. Kern, A. Dowlati. Constitutive activation of Src and downstream STAT3 in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) can be targeted and result in growth inhibition. AACR 2006
• Milner B, Cortas T, Bonomo R, Dourado C, Rotter G. Optimizing and Standardizing Care of High Risk Neutropenic Patients in a Teaching Hospital. AVAHO 2008 
  
  Trials at Arizona Oncology Associates involved in:
  • NASBP 49 A phase III Breast clinical trial comparing the combination of Docetaxel plus cyclophosphamide to anthracycline based chemotherapy Regimen for women with Node positive or high risk Node negative Her2 /neu negative Breast cancer
  • NASBP 47 A randomized Phase III trial of adjuvant chemotherapy comparing chemotherapy alone ( 6 cycles of TC or 4 cycles of AC followed by weekly Taxol) to chemotherapy plus trastuzumab in women with node positive or high risk node negative Her 2/neu low invasive breast cancer
  • USON 13011 Randomized phase II trial of chemotherapy of physician choice plus trastuzumab vs chemotherapy plus trastuzumab plus pertuzumab in woman with pretreated, Her2/neu overexpressing metastatic breast cancer
  • USON 13026 Evaluation of miracle mouth wash plus hydrocortisone and prednisone mouth wash rinse as prophylaxis for everolimus associated stomatitis.
  • USO 13033/Millenium X14021: A phase II, Multicenter, Randomized Parallel group Study to compare Alisertib in combination with paclitaxel vs paclitaxel alone in patients with metastatic or locally recurrent breast cancer
  • Competi-P2 2012 COMPETI phase II: Characterization of circulating tumor cells from subjects of metastatic breast cancer using CTC endocrine therapy index.
  • G200901: Phase II open label, Multicenter, Multinational study investigating the Efficacy and safety of GTx-024 On advanced, androgen receptor positive triple negative breast cancer
  • NRGBR003: A randomized phase III Trial of Adjuvant Therapy comparing doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed by weekly paclitaxel with and without carboplatin for Node positive or high risk node negative triple negative invasive breast cancer
  • CLEE011A230 A randomized double blind, placebo controlled study of LEE011 in combination with letrozole for treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone positive, her2/neu negative, advanced breast cancer who received no prior therapy for advanced disease
  • USOR 15203 A Dose Frequency Optimization, Phase IIIB/IV Trial of Nivolumab 240 mg Every 2 Weeks vs Nivolumab 480 mg Every 4 Weeks in Subjects with Advanced or Metastatic Non-small Cell Lung Cancer who Received Up to 12 Months of Nivolumab at 3 mg/kg or 240 mg Every 2 Weeks (CheckMate 384- CA209384)