Tara Henderson named to lead pediatric cancer and blood diseases programs at UChicago Medicine, Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance

Tara O. Henderson, MD, MPH, has been named the new Service Line Chief of Pediatric Cancer and Blood Diseases at the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance (CCHA), a collaboration between University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, Advocate Children’s Hospital and Pediatrics at NorthShore University HealthSystem. The renowned cancer specialist and researcher will also become Section Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation at UChicago Medicine.

A professor of pediatrics at UChicago and an active childhood cancer researcher, Henderson has held both roles on an interim basis since July 2020. Under her tenure, she worked with CCHA physicians to strengthen collaboration, identify key growth opportunities and initiate the development of joint programs across the three organizations.

“Dr. Henderson has articulated an exciting vision to create an elite national program that is supported equally by outstanding clinical care, exceptional education and a focus on fundamental and innovative translational, clinical and health outcomes research,” said John M. Cunningham, MD, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at UChicago and Co-Chief Medical Officer of the CCHA.

A graduate of UChicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Henderson joined the University’s faculty in 2005. Since then, she has established one of the pre-eminent academic childhood survivorship programs in the nation and published more than 80 journal articles. As a federally funded cancer researcher, she has made seminal contributions to the understanding, management and prevention of the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy of pediatric cancer survivors.

Henderson is the co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center and is the principal investigator of two National Cancer Institute-funded intervention trials to improve screening and early detection of subsequent malignancies in adult survivors of childhood cancer. She is also the director of the UChicago Medicine’s Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult Survivorship Center, a program aimed at the prevention and treatment of long-term issues associated with cancer therapy.

“Dr. Henderson’s leadership in hematology and oncology — exemplified by her personal scholarship, funding and leadership in national organizations — provides a model for our CCHA partnership,” said Frank Belmonte, DO, Chief Medical Officer at Advocate Children’s.

Henderson is a member of the board of directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and serves on numerous NCI, National Academy of Medicine, Department of Defense and foundational review panels. She is a Presidential Leadership Scholar and a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the pre-eminent physician-scientist honor society in the nation.

“We are thrilled that Dr. Tara Henderson has been named our new Service Line Chief of Pediatric Cancer and Blood Diseases. She is a nationally known and respected physician and we are lucky to have her in our CCHA family,” said Michael Caplan, MD, Chief Scientific Officer and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at NorthShore. “She will ensure we bring the best care to patients in our Chicagoland communities who require complex care for these challenging services.”