Deborah K. Armstrong MD

Deborah K. Armstrong, MD, is Professor of Oncology at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins and Director of the Johns Hopkins Breast and Ovarian Cancer Screening Service, a genetic counseling service that focuses on identifying patients at risk for cancer and examination of new strategies for cancer screening and prevention.

Dr. Armstrong received her medical degree with distinction from the George Washington University School of Medicine. While at George Washington, she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and awarded the American Medical Women's Association Scholarship Achievement Citation. She subsequently completed an internal medicine internship and residency at the University of Pittsburgh, where she served as Chief Medical Resident, and a medical oncology fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

During her oncology training, Dr. Armstrong was awarded fellowships from the Susan G. Koman Foundation and the Stetler Research Fund. Since joining the Johns Hopkins faculty, Dr. Armstrong has received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Ladies Home Journal Breakthrough Achievement Award, the Rosalind Franklin Award for Ovarian Cancer Research, and has twice received the Osler Housestaff Teaching Award.

Dr. Armstrong works primarily in the area of women’s malignancies, with a particular emphasis on breast cancer, ovarian cancer, gynecologic malignancies, and the genetics of breast and ovarian cancer. Her clinical work focuses on the development of new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of breast cancer and gynecologic malignancies. Particular areas of interest include intraperitoneal therapy, targeted biologic therapy, and immunologic approaches to cancer treatment.

Dr. Armstrong has lectured locally, nationally, and internationally on the treatment of breast and ovarian cancer. She is active in the NRG (previously Gynecologic Oncology Group), serving on the Medical Oncology, Developmental Therapeutics and Phase I committees and as Chair of several clinical trials through this group. Additionally, she is Co-Chair of the Ovarian Cancer Task Force for the Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee of the National Cancer Institute and is a former member and Chair of the Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) to the FDA. Dr. Armstrong is a scientific reviewer for the breast and ovarian cancer research programs of the Department of Defense and the National Cancer Institute and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance.

Dr. Armstrong is Chair of the NCCN Ovarian Cancer Panel, serves on the committee for the NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards, contributes to several committees for the NCCN Oncology Research Program, and is an editorial board member for JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.