Rebecca Aft, MD, PhD

Rebecca Aft, MD, PhD, is a currently a professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine and specializes in cancer surgery with an emphasis on breast cancer. She earned her doctorate from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis. She joined the faculty at Washington University after completing a residency in surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. She is currently on staff at Barnes-Jewish and the John Cochran Veterans Administration Hospital and divides her time between clinical practice and translational research. Aft has been the principal investigator (PI) on multiple extramural and intramural grants as well as the PI on several clinical trials. Aft’s main research interest is characterizing disseminated tumor cells in breast cancer. These cells are intermediaries in the development of metastases.  Her work focuses on molecularly characterizing these cells for predictive biomarker development and new therapeutic interventions.

In March 2023, Aft was installed as the first Jeffrey F. Moley Professor of Endrocrine and Oncology Surgery.