Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO, is a professor of medicine in the division of hematology/oncology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the associate director for cooperative groups at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Benson is a recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award (fellow of ASCO) and has served on a number of committees, including as member of the Quality of Cancer Care Task Force, co-chair of ASCO’s Colorectal Cancer Guidelines Subcommittee, the Stage II Colon Cancer Guidelines Panel, and the Guidelines Panel for use of Radiofrequency Ablation for Colorectal Cancer. In addition, he served as ACCC President (2010-2011), and most recently as as chair of the ACCC Clinical Affairs Committee. He is also a past president of the Illinois Medical Oncology Society. Dr. Benson He is on the editorial board of the ASCO Connection (term completed), Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, American Health and Drug Benefits, Personalized Medicine in Oncology, Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research, among others.
Dr. Benson’s research is primarily in the areas of gastrointestinal cancer clinical trials, biologic therapies, phase I cancer clinical trials, health services research, and cancer guideline development. He has authored or coauthored numerous reports, reviews, and book chapters focusing on these topics. His research in biologics, cancer therapy, and cancer prevention has been awarded funding from a variety of sources including the National Institutes of Health. His most recent national awards include the NCCN Rodger J. Winn Award and the ACCC Clinical Research Award.