U of A cancer researcher dies of same disease she fought to cure

Dr. Rachna Shroff, a leading University of Arizona cancer researcher, spent most of her career studying gastrointestinal cancers and trying to find cures.

She died Sunday after battling a form of the same disease.

Shroff, associate director of clinical investigations and co-leader of the Gastrointestinal Clinical Research Team at the UA’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, was 47.

She had been diagnosed with cancer only months earlier, reported The Today Show on NBC. She developed a swollen lymph node, discovered in May, that may have originated in her stomach or intestine.

While the swollen lymph node was initially thought to be lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, it was later confirmed to be terminal adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer which starts in the glandular cells lining organs, such as the lungs, colon, breast or pancreas, The Today Show reported.

“It’s been a journey,” Shroff told NBC News in an interview shortly before her death. “I’ve spent my entire life trying to eradicate cancer, primarily pancreatic cancer, but also liver cancers.”

NBC News said Shroff spoke at the 2025 conference for the American Society of Clinical Oncology days after she was diagnosed.

Shroff, an internationally respected expert in cholangiocarcinoma or bile duct cancer, spent nearly a decade at the UA. She started focusing on the rare disease, historically known to be difficult to treat, when only a few treatment options existed, and no Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies were available, said a UA news release Monday.

She started her career by doing undergraduate work at Brown University and went on to get her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University. She did her fellowship with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2010 and was an associate professor of GI medical oncology at the center from 2010-18, which is when she was recruited to the UA.

Her husband, Dr. Puneet Shroff, is a UA clinical professor of medicine in the College of Medicine — Tucson and associate director of Banner Medical Group’s Allergy Clinic.

The couple was just a few months away from their 20th anniversary, NBC News reported.

“Puneet has been the reason I’ve marched forward. And his ability to understand my vantage point, and his ability ... to just stand by my side,” Rachna Shroff told NBC News.

She said her main priority was her children, daughter Simran and son Sachin, and that’s all that really mattered to her.

“To have no cares, so to speak, in the world, and then all of them at your feet all at once, that’s both overwhelming,” Puneet Shroff told NBC News earlier this year. “But it also teaches you resilience, and I hope that teaches our children resilience. I hope, for Rachna’s sake, it gives her strength, courage.”

Simran, who is 17, and Sachin, 13, told NBC that her tenacity and loving nature are what they will remember her by.

One of Rachna Shroff’s final wishes was to establish an award, the Conquer Cancer — Rachna Shroff, MD, MS, FASCO Endowed Young Investigator Award in Biliary Cancers. She completed this goal within weeks and raised more than $1.35 million to support the future of cancer innovation.

At the UA, Shroff was also named the inaugural John F. and Valli S. Duval Endowed Professor for Gastrointestinal Oncology and served as associate dean for clinical and translational research at the College of Medicine — Tucson. She had more than 80 publications under her name and spoke at more than 130 professional engagements.

She was the daughter of a nephrologist mother and a biochemist father, the UA news release said, and she knew from a young age that she wanted to mesh scientific discovery with her “innate sense of compassion.”

Shroff grew up in Tucson and was a 1996 graduate of St. Gregory College Preparatory School, now known as The Gregory School. She won the 1993 Osler Fellowship in high school and got to work in the lab of Margaret Briehl, PhD, a UA Cancer Center member and a professor at UA’s Tucson medical college.

When the UA announced in May 2018 that Shroff was leaving Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center to move back to her hometown to join the UA Cancer Center, she said, “For the kids to be close to family is invaluable. I grew up with my grandparents living in Tucson, and it’s a priceless experience to have family around you.”

She also noted then how much she appreciated Tucson’s beauty: “The mountains, the stunning backdrops and the sunsets. It’s so peaceful and tranquil.”

In addition to her other accomplishments, Shroff was also known for her work in developing novel therapies for pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers. Through her work in these areas, she rose to multiple positions nationally, including the Hepatobiliary Subcommittee co-chair for the Southwest Oncology Group as well as the chair for GI ASCO 2024, a meeting on gastrointestinal cancers sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

In her time at the UA, she continued working in immunological therapies and novel drug treatments. She was associate dean for clinical and translational research for three years in UA’s Tucson medical college, and was division chief of hematology/oncology in the Department of Medicine.

She also built a gastrointestinal oncology program at UA’s cancer center, and worked to expand clinical trials in Southern Arizona so patients could access the latest scientific advances.

Shroff’s “No. 1 credo,” she told NBC News, was that her work be part of the legacy that she hoped will “outlive” her.

Dan Theodorescu, who holds an endowed chair as director of the cancer center and was Shroff’s boss, praised her work in helping move forward hundreds of clinical trials, in particular.

“And ... what she’s done for the institution, in addition to doing her own clinical trial and seeing patients, she also managed to recruit some very, very bright young people,” Theodorescu told NBC News.

In addition to her husband and children, she is survived by her father and mother, Devendar Trivedi and Dr. Amita Trivedi, and her sister, Neema Sahni, the UA said.

"Beyond her professional accomplishments, she brought fun everywhere she went," the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, of which Shroff was a science and medical advisory board member, posted Tuesday. 

"Whether she was quoting Beyoncé in a talk about clinical trials or getting us to throw our hands during her amazing Bollywood lesson, Rachna made us live in the moment and laugh, even in the hardest of times.

"Our hearts are with her family and friends in the days ahead and beyond."