Dr. Hedrick-Ellenson received her medical degree at Stanford University and completed her training in pathology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Upon completion of those studies, she was appointed Instructor, subsequently Assistant Professor and finally Associate Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins. Dr. Hedrick-Ellenson was appointed Associate Professor of Pathology at Cornell and Associate Attending Pathologist at The New York Hospital in 1998.
Dr. Hedrick-Ellenson has a national reputation for her diagnostic expertise and clinical research involving endometrial carcinoma. Dr. Hedrick-Ellenson serves as Director of the Division of Gynecologic Pathology and as such is responsible for the efficient delivery of accurate diagnostic services in gynecologic pathology.
Dr. Ellensons research interest is in endometrial carcinoma, the most common malignancy of the female genital tract. Although it is often thought of as a single disease, there is epidemiological and clinicopathological evidence to support the view that endometrial carcinoma encompasses two broad categories of malignant epithelial tumors. Each broad category is composed predominantly of one histological type of endometrial carcinoma. The most common is uterine endometrioid carcinoma (UEC) and the other less common, but more aggressive type, is called uterine serous carcinoma (USC). We are currently using molecular approaches to define the differences, and the similarities, in the molecular genetic alterations of the two types of endometrial carcinoma and develop a genetic mouse model of endometrial tumorigenesis.
Dr. Lora Hedrick Ellenson, a pathologist and molecular biologist, is a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Division of Gynecological Pathology. Dr. Ellenson was formally trained as an Anatomic Pathologist, and a molecular geneticist. She received her B.A. from University of California at Berkeley in 1980, and her M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1986. After completing her Residency in Pathology at Johns Hopkins, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Bert Volgelstein. At Johns Hopkins, she was promoted to Assistant Professor with joint appointments in Pathology, Gynecology and Obstetrics, and Oncology in 1994 and to Associate Professor in 1997. She came to the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in 1998 and was promoted to Professor in 2004. While satisfying her clinical duties, Dr. Ellenson oversees an NIH funded research program on the development of a genetic mouse model of endometrial tumorigenesis.
