Jane Minturn, MD, PhD

Dr. Jane Minturn, Director of Clinical Operations of the Section of Neuro-Oncology in the Cancer Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is a board-certified Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist specializing in the care of children with brain and spinal cord tumors. She is an Attending Physician and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Minturn’s research interests and clinical expertise are in developmental therapeutics and developing early phase clinical trials with novel outcome measures for children with brain and spinal cord tumors. Additionally, she studies the late-effects of central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapy in infants and children. Understanding the factors (radiation therapy, intensified chemotherapy, genetic variability/susceptibility) related to critical neurodevelopmental outcomes, such as language development, behavioral changes, and social competence, is essential to minimizing the neurodevelopmental morbidity of intensified therapies and in improving the quality of long-term survival. In a multi-disciplinary research setting, we are working to develop novel ways to test and monitor the neurodevelopmental outcomes of children treated for brain tumors using functional neuro-imaging and studying how treatment-related disruption of normal brain connectivity increases the risks for poor neurocognitive outcomes in survivors.

Dr. Minturn graduated from the University of Southern California summa cum laude in Psychology/Biology before receiving her M.D. and Ph.D degrees from Yale University (Neurobiology). She completed her Pediatric Residency at The Children’s Hospital, Boston and Fellowship training in Hematology and Oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.