Theofano Orfanelli, MD, PhD

Theofano Orfanelli MD, PhD, FACOG, is Assistant Program Director, Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program at Montefiore Einstein and Assistant Professor at our Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Orfanelli specializes in advanced abdominal-pelvic and minimally invasive surgeries for gynecologic cancers. She is highly focused on managing hereditary cancer syndromes, ensuring personalized patient care and implementing leading-edge surgical techniques.

In 2010, Dr. Orfanelli earned her Doctor of Medicine from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine in Athens, Greece, where she graduated as valedictorian. She then pursued a postdoctoral research fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian / Weill Cornell Medicine, completing it in 2013, followed by an obstetrics and gynecology internship at the same institution in 2014. She completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School from 2014 to 2017, during which she completed the Brunschwig Gynecologic Oncology Rotating Residency at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2015. Dr. Orfanelli then pursued a three-year gynecologic oncology fellowship at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, completing it in 2020. In 2021, she received her Doctor of Philosophy from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine. Dr. Orfanelli is currently completing her Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Orfanelli's research emphasizes early detection of gynecologic malignancies and cancer immunotherapy. She is actively involved in clinical trials and seeks to advance the understanding and treatment of gynecologic cancers through innovative research methodologies. She has shared her work through peer-reviewed journals, poster presentations and invited talks. Dr. Orfanelli is a peer reviewer for several publications including Cell, Gynecologic Oncology and the International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer, among others.

Dr. Orfanelli is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS), among others. She has served and still serves as a member to multiple committees for the SGO. In 2018, Dr. Orfanelli was awarded the Perlman Family Colon Cancer Alliance for Research and Education (CCARE) Lynch Syndrome Research Prize from the Foundation for Women’s Cancer. In 2022, she received the American Cancer Society (ACS) Institutional Research Grant.