Obituary: As She Faced Cancer Herself, Dr. Rachna Shroff Worked to Transform Treatment for Others

Dr. Rachna T. Shroff, an internationally recognized oncologist and cancer researcher who helped advance treatment for bile duct cancer and championed access to clinical trials for patients in Southern Arizona, has died, the University of Arizona announced Oct. 12. She was a leader in gastrointestinal oncology whose work spanned groundbreaking clinical research, academic medicine and mentorship.

Shroff served as associate director of clinical investigations at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the university’s College of Medicine – Tucson. She was the inaugural John F. and Valli S. Duval Endowed Professor for Gastrointestinal Oncology and also served as associate dean for clinical and translational research.

Her research focused on cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts that historically had few treatment options. When Shroff turned her attention to the disease, no therapies had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration specifically for its treatment. As a principal investigator on landmark clinical trials, she helped advance a field that has since undergone substantial change.

Shroff also worked to develop new treatments for pancreatic and other hepatobiliary cancers. Her expertise earned her prominent national roles, including co-chair of the Hepatobiliary Subcommittee for the Southwest Oncology Group, a major cancer clinical-trials network, and chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s GI ASCO 2024 meeting, devoted to gastrointestinal cancers.

Over the course of her career, she authored more than 80 publications and participated in more than 130 professional engagements, according to the university.

Her commitment to cancer research began in Tucson, where she grew up in a family shaped by science and medicine. Her mother was a nephrologist and her father a biochemist. As a high school student, Shroff received the 1993 Osler Fellowship, which allowed her to work in the laboratory of Margaret Briehl, a University of Arizona Cancer Center member and professor at the College of Medicine – Tucson.

Shroff earned her undergraduate degree from Brown University and her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University. She completed a fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2010 and remained there as an associate professor of gastrointestinal medical oncology until 2018, when she returned to Tucson to join the University of Arizona.

During nearly a decade at the university, she built a high-performing gastrointestinal oncology program at the Cancer Center and expanded clinical trials in Southern Arizona, seeking to make emerging treatments available to more patients. She continued to advance immunological therapies and novel drug treatments while maintaining a focus on the people behind the diagnoses.

In September, while facing her own life-limiting cancer, Shroff pursued what the university described as one of her final wishes: establishing the Conquer Cancer – Rachna Shroff, MD, MS, FASCO Endowed Young Investigator Award in Biliary Cancers. Within weeks, she raised more than $1.35 million to support emerging investigators and the future of cancer research.

The effort reflected a career devoted not only to improving treatment for patients but also to building the next generation of researchers who would carry that work forward.

Beyond her professional achievements, Shroff most cherished her roles as a wife, mother and friend, the university said.

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Puneet Shroff, a professor of medicine and associate director of the Banner Medical Group’s Allergy Clinic; her children, Simran and Sachin; her parents, Devendar Trivedi and Dr. Amita Trivedi; and her sister, Neema Sahni.

(This obituary is based on an announcement published Oct. 12, 2026, by the University of Arizona.)