Julie E. Lang, MD

Dr. Julie Lang is a breast cancer surgeon and medical director of the Comprehensive Breast Care Center at the UK Markey Cancer Center. She also serves as the section chief of breast surgery within the Division of Surgical Oncology.

Dr. Lang is an accomplished and nationally recognized physician-scientist specializing in breast cancer surgery, clinical trials and translational breast cancer research. Her research focuses on inflammatory breast cancer, circulating tumor cells, circulating tumor DNA and liquid biopsy technologies, with the goal of developing more personalized treatment strategies for patients. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has dedicated her career to advancing personalized breast cancer care through innovative research and multidisciplinary collaboration. 

Previously, Dr. Lang served as director of the breast cancer research program at the University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. During that time, she also cared for patients at Los Angeles County Medical Center, where she expanded access to advanced breast cancer care and clinical trials for both private and medically underserved populations. Before USC, she was director of breast surgical oncology at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, where she established her independent breast cancer research laboratory. Most recently, she practiced at Cleveland Clinic, where she continued her clinical and translational research programs while leading breast cancer clinical trials. 

Dr. Lang earned her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also conducted undergraduate cancer research. She completed a general surgery residency and a two-year postdoctoral breast cancer research fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), followed by a breast surgical oncology fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. During her research training, she pioneered studies of circulating tumor cells and liquid biopsy technologies; this work contributed to a successful U.S. Food and Drug Administration medical device application and advanced understanding of breast cancer biology. She has also served as a site principal investigator for the nationally recognized I-SPY2 clinical trial network at multiple academic medical centers. 

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