Rebecca C. Arend, M.D., MPH

Associate Director for Clinical Research

The UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center is pleased to announce that Rebecca C. Arend, M.D., MPH, has been named Associate Director for Clinical Trials effective August 12, 2024. She is the Endowed Professor of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Arend is a gynecologic oncologist with her research focused on translational research corresponding to biomarker studies, cancer health disparities and clinical trial development. She obtained her M.D. at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She then completed her residency at Columbia Presbyterian in Obstetrics & Gynecology and subsequently completed both her fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology and her master’s degree in public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Arend then went on to join the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2015, where she continued her passion for being a surgeon-scientist by acquiring a laboratory for her research endeavors. Since 2015, she has dedicated a portion of her time to training the next generation of scientists and physicians. Arend has also been the chair of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee, co-chair of the GYN Disease Oriented Working Group, and participated in the Clinical Research Oversight Committee. She became the co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics program of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2023 along with being named the Medical Director of Clinical Trials that same year.

She continues to serve in a leadership capacity in her new role as Associate Director of Clinical Trials as of August 2024, which is central to setting research priorities to advance cancer research. Her research in gynecologic cancers  enable the discovery of blood-based biomarkers for disease susceptibility, progression and clinical management, as well as the identification of new therapeutic targets.