Rate My Professor Alison Stopeck

Alison Stopeck, MD, serves as Professor of Medicine in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. She is Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Associate Director for Clinical and Translational Research at the Stony Brook Cancer Center. Stopeck earned her bachelor's degree from Brown University and her Doctor of Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Columbia/NY Presbyterian Medical Center and her fellowship in hematology/oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College in 1991. She holds board certifications in medical oncology from 1991 and internal medicine from 1988 by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Stopeck specializes in clinical research on breast cancer, conducting trials across all disease stages and incorporating advanced imaging methods with novel therapies and companion circulating and tissue biomarkers. Her academic interests encompass biomarker discovery using functional imaging to predict breast cancer risk and response to antitumor therapies, the tumor microenvironment, and circulating biomarkers for disease prognosis and targeted therapies. Current focuses include the role of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in breast cancer prevention and improving clinical outcomes with immunotherapy approaches in breast cancer. She has authored or co-authored over 200 book chapters, refereed journal articles, abstracts, and editorials, including "Phase 2 trial of imprime and pembrolizumab immunotherapy in metastatic triple negative breast cancer patients who have progressed beyond first line chemotherapy" (Journal of Immunology, 2025), "Denosumab compared with zoledronic acid for the treatment of bone metastases in patients with advanced breast cancer: a randomized, double-blind study" (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2010), and "Circulating Tumor Cells at Each Follow-up Time Point during Therapy with Aromatase Inhibitors in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients" (Clinical Cancer Research, 2006). Stopeck serves as associate editor for the American Journal of Medicine, heading the hematology/oncology section. She has been named one of the Best Doctors in America and America’s Top Doctors for Cancer.