The CU Sarcoma Clinic is pleased to welcome Breelyn A. Wilky, MD, to our multidisciplinary team. Dr. Wilky joined the Medical Oncology faculty in the cancer clinic on November 1, 2018.
Dr. Wilky is a sarcoma medical oncologist and clinical trialist with research interests in immunotherapy, targeted therapy and precision medicine, and early-phase drug development. She relocated to Colorado from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. In her prior clinical faculty role, she provided clinical care for patients with sarcomas and other bone and soft tissue tumors, including desmoid fibromatosis, pigmented villonodular synovitis, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and giant cell tumor of bone. In 2017, Dr. Wilky led the Cancer Center in Miami with the highest number of patient accruals to clinical trials, as principal investigator for multiple Phase II and III sarcoma clinical trials, as well as novel Phase I immunotherapy protocols, including checkpoint-inhibitor combinations and vaccine therapies.
In her new role as Associate Professor in Colorado, Dr. Wilky will work as a member of the Sarcoma and Phase I Programs, expanding the portfolio of investigator-initiated clinical trials, and helping to advance immunotherapy and adoptive cellular therapy for solid tumors. As the Director of Sarcoma Translational Research, her laboratory initiatives will study tumor and immune microenvironment in sarcomas, focusing on angiogenesis as a potential resistance mechanism to checkpoint inhibitors.
Dr. Wilky received her undergraduate degree in Biology and Music from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and attended medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey (now Rutgers Medical School.) She received her MD with Distinction in Research. She then completed the Osler internship and residency in Internal Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and stayed there to complete her fellowship in Medical Oncology. Her honors and awards include election to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, an ASCO/Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award in 2012, and Outstanding Clinical Researcher of the Year for 2017 at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Most recently, she received an American Cancer Society Mentored Research Scholar Grant to further her research in understanding the role of the immune system in fighting sarcomas.
