There are physicians whose careers can be measured in clinical trials, publications, leadership positions and advances in treatment. And then there are those whose impact is also measured in something less easily counted: the people they encouraged, the patients they gave hope to, the young physicians they believed in, the friendships they built and the rooms they made brighter simply by being in them.
Rachna T. Shroff was both.
Her death has left the oncology community mourning an internationally respected gastrointestinal oncologist and one of the leading voices in biliary tract cancer. But in the tributes shared by those who knew her, another portrait has emerged just as strongly: a woman remembered for her warmth, humor, generosity, energy, and unmistakable ability to bring joy with her.
It feels particularly fitting for someone whose personal motto was:
“If you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”
Dr. Shroff did exactly that.
A Life Built Around Patients
Rachna Shroff devoted much of her career to diseases for which patients historically had too few options.
An internationally recognized expert in cholangiocarcinoma, pancreatic cancer and hepatobiliary malignancies, she helped advance a field that has undergone profound change during her career. She led clinical trials, developed new therapeutic approaches and worked to ensure that scientific progress translated into something meaningful for the person sitting across from an oncologist in the clinic.
After training at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, she remained there as a faculty member before returning in 2018 to Arizona, where she had grown up. At the University of Arizona Cancer Center, she helped build a strong gastrointestinal oncology and clinical research program and expanded access to clinical trials across Southern Arizona.
Before her passing, she served as Associate Director of Clinical Investigations at the University of Arizona Cancer Center; Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson; Professor of Medicine; and Medical Director for the Oncology Service Line with Banner Health. She was also the inaugural John F. and Valli S. Duval Endowed Professor for Gastrointestinal Oncology.
But titles tell only part of her story.
For Dr. Shroff, research was inseparable from responsibility to patients. Speaking about clinical trials, she once described the goal simply: to have an innovative option available for every patient who walked through the door.
That belief shaped much of her work. It also shaped the way others experienced her.
“She Brought Fun Everywhere She Went”
The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, where Dr. Shroff was a longtime partner and member of its Science and Medical Advisory Board, remembered not only the physician and researcher, but the person behind those roles.
The Foundation highlighted the tangible difference she made for patients and families throughout her career, from helping build major clinical and research programs in biliary tract cancer to caring for patients with expertise and empathy.
But its tribute also captured something that cannot be found on a CV:
“Beyond her professional accomplishments, she brought fun everywhere she went.”
They remembered Dr. Shroff quoting Beyoncé while speaking about clinical trials and leading an energetic Bollywood lesson that had people on their feet.
They reflected a person who understood that even in a field defined by some of life’s hardest conversations, there was still room for laughter, music, movement and joy. The Foundation remembered someone who made people “live in the moment and laugh, even in the hardest of times.”
That spirit was not separate from her work. It was part of how she did it.
Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation/LinkedIn
A Brilliant Smile and “Signature Sparkles”
Julie R. Gralow, MD, FACP, FASCO, Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), remembered Dr. Shroff through an image instantly recognizable to those who knew her: her brilliant smile and her “signature sparkles.”
Dr. Gralow wrote that while those qualities could light up a room, Dr. Shroff’s dedication to ASCO and to biliary cancer research created an even brighter legacy.
For Dr. Shroff, ASCO had long been a professional home. She participated in the ASCO Leadership Development Program, served on the Nominating Committee, chaired the Cancer Communications Committee, contributed to ASCO Daily News and JCO Journals, participated in multiple GI cancer committees, and devoted substantial time to mentorship.
ASCO, in its own remembrance, described her as a dedicated volunteer whose commitment to the organization was deeply woven into her professional life. Dr. Shroff herself once said that ASCO had been integral to her development both as an oncologist and as a leader.
Now, part of that relationship will continue through an initiative designed to give others the opportunity she once received.
Julie R. Gralow/LinkedIn
A Final Gift to the Next Generation
During the final months of her life, while facing her own cancer, Dr. Shroff turned her attention toward the future.
One of her wishes was to establish the Conquer Cancer – Rachna Shroff, MD, MS, FASCO Endowed Young Investigator Award in Biliary Cancers.
Early in her own career, Dr. Shroff had received a Young Investigator Award from Conquer Cancer, support that helped launch the research career she would later use to transform the field. She wanted another generation of researchers to receive that same opportunity.
More than 600 people, colleagues, friends, patients, advocates, researchers, and supporters, came together around the effort. In a matter of weeks, more than $1.35 million was raised, permanently endowing the award. It is difficult to imagine a more fitting legacy.
A researcher who spent her career creating possibilities for patients made one of her final acts the creation of possibilities for researchers she would never meet. Her name will now accompany young investigators at the beginning of their own journeys in biliary cancer research. And through them, more questions will be asked, more trials will be opened, and more patients may find options that do not exist today.
A message from Dr. Rachna Shroff – Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation
“An Absolutely Brilliant Light”
For Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Director of its BPDCN Program, the loss was profoundly personal.
In his tribute, Dr. Pemmaraju mourned his “dear loving big sister,” friend and former co-fellow.
He remembered Dr. Shroff not simply as a world-renowned researcher and clinical trialist, but as a devoted mother and wife, a generous leader and, in his words, “an absolutely brilliant light.”
His message ended not with her professional accomplishments, but with a hope shared across the oncology community: that her legacy would carry forward, her memory would be honored, and she would never be forgotten.
Expertise With Humanity
Mike Blecker, PharmD, of Incyte, whose work has also included cholangiocarcinoma research, reflected on a different kind of connection with Dr. Shroff.
They did not need to interact every day for her to leave an impression.
Their paths crossed through conversations about the care of patients with biliary tract cancers, and Dr. Blecker recalled being consistently struck by her collegiality, grace and genuine compassion.
Whether speaking privately or presenting from a podium, he wrote, Dr. Shroff brought together “both expertise and humanity.”
Perhaps few descriptions summarize her legacy more clearly.
Her expertise changed a field.
Her humanity changed the experience of the people within it.
Dr. Blecker also emphasized that beyond her professional life, she was a wife, mother, colleague, and friend, and encouraged others to support the Young Investigator Award established in her name so that her influence could continue through another generation.
More Than a Career
Rachna Shroff authored more than 80 scientific publications, delivered more than 130 professional presentations, led important trials in biliary tract cancers, and held leadership roles across some of oncology’s most influential institutions and organizations.
But perhaps the extraordinary response to her death tells us something else about what constitutes a meaningful life in medicine.
Again and again, people have remembered her smile.
Her sparkles.
Her laughter.
Her generosity.
Her mentorship.
Her Bollywood dancing.
Her devotion to her patients.
Her willingness to make time for younger colleagues
.
Her ability to combine scientific ambition with kindness.
And her determination, even while confronting her own illness, to create something that would give opportunities to people coming after her.
The University of Arizona remembered that beneath all of her accomplishments, her most cherished roles were those of wife, mother, and friend. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Puneet Shroff; their children, Simran and Sachin; her parents, Devendar Trivedi and Dr. Amita Trivedi; and her sister, Neema Sahni.
Rachna Shroff with her family.
For a community accustomed to talking about survival curves, endpoints, and years gained, grief has its own way of reminding us that a life can never be reduced to numbers.
Rachna Shroff’s contribution to oncology will continue in the treatments she helped advance, the research programs she built, and the investigators who will carry the field forward.
But her legacy will also live somewhere less measurable.
In a trainee who becomes a mentor because she once believed in them.
In a patient who remembers being treated as a person rather than a diagnosis.
In colleagues who bring a little more kindness into difficult rooms.
In the scientists who will receive an award bearing her name and be given the opportunity to pursue an idea that might someday change a patient’s life.
And in a simple sentence that now feels inseparable from the way so many people remember her:
“If you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”
Rachna Shroff was.
And that light remains.
Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation/LinkedIn