Dartmouth Cancer Center Appoints Renowned Pioneer Roy S. Herbst as Director to Lead Regional Expansion and Research

International cancer research pioneer Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, joins Dartmouth Cancer Center as director to lead clinical innovation and regional care.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 1, 2026, 5:43 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Dartmouth Health

A Strategic Leadership Transition in New England Oncology

The Dartmouth Cancer Center (DCC) has reached a pivotal milestone with the appointment of Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, as its new executive leader. According to Joanne M. Conroy, CEO and president of Dartmouth Health, the center represents a vital asset as one of only three NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the region and the only one serving a non-urban population. Herbst is tasked with bridging the gap between high-level academic research and rural healthcare delivery, ensuring that patients throughout New Hampshire and beyond have access to elite medical interventions.

Translational Expertise from Yale to Dartmouth

Herbst transitions to this role from his previous tenure at Yale, where he served as the deputy director and chief of medical oncology at the Smilow Cancer Hospital. His career is defined by a commitment to translational medicine, which focuses on moving laboratory discoveries directly into clinical settings. Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock noted that Herbst’s background as a physician and scholar makes him uniquely qualified to lead the DCC into an era defined by medical breakthroughs and expanded collaboration between Dartmouth’s five schools and its wider health system.

Pioneering Biomarker Research and Clinical Design

The scientific community recognizes Herbst for his foundational work in lung cancer research and innovative clinical trial structures. As the founding principal investigator of the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer, he spearheaded the Lung Master Protocol, a system that utilizes specific biomarkers to customize patient treatments. According to Steven D. Leach, interim dean of Geisel, these efforts have already led to the approval of multiple standard-of-care therapies, a trend Dartmouth hopes to accelerate under Herbst’s guidance by fostering deeper links between laboratory scientists and frontline clinicians.