Associate Director, Clinical Affairs
Leigh A. Cantrell, MD, MSPH
Leigh A. Cantrell, MD, MSPH, is the Cancer Center’s Associate Director for Clinical Affairs and Physician Lead for UVA Health’s Oncology Service Line. She is responsible for ensuring that the oncology clinical enterprise functions support clinical and translational research. She provides direction of clinical care services for the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center as well as UVA’s regional cancer sites of operation. In this role, she oversees the coordination of cancer care, promotes process improvement, optimizes quality and safety of cancer care, increases patient access, and enhances the patient experience across the Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also a Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Dr. Cantrell joined UVA in 2010, and since that time has held multiple leadership roles within the School of Medicine and UVA Health. She is a leader in the field of robotic surgery and surgical research in the field of gynecologic oncology. Dr. Cantrell served as chair of the Medical Center’s Robotic Users Group from 2011 through 2023, and led transformational growth in the program, which includes many surgical oncologists. Her support was also instrumental in establishing UVA Health’s transplant robotics program. She served as the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s Residency Program Director from 2013 to 2023, the interim Department Chair 2021-22 and now as Executive Vice Chair. Since 2018, Dr. Cantrell has served as Medical Director of the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center Ambulatory Clinic.
In addition to robotics, Dr. Cantrell’s research interests include high-risk uterine cancers and cervical cancers. Her contributions to the field of gynecologic oncology have included the FIRES trial, which established sentinel lymph node biopsy for endometrial cancers, and most recently the Lunchbox trial which concluded to significant difference in sequencing of treatment for advanced stage endometrial cancers. The Gynecologic Oncology Division, of which Dr. Cantrell is a part, has been a consistent leader in clinical trials accrual. Dr. Cantrell is currently the institutional principal investigator for a trial evaluating robotic versus open radical hysterectomy for patients with early cervical cancer.
Dr. Cantrell serves on multiple committees of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society for Gynecologic Oncology, and the Council for Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CREOG). She is a national Board Examiner and a member of the CREOG Residents as Leaders and Teachers program, and also serves on the Board of the Lorna Breen Foundation.
Dr. Cantrell earned her undergraduate, master’s and medical degrees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she remained for both Residency and Fellowship training.