Lisa Wray, MD

Lisa Wray, MD, is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist and an attending physician with the Cancer Center. She specializes in caring for children with cancer who are undergoing stem cell transplant or CAR T-cell therapy and pursues research with the goal of improving the results of those therapies.

For Dr. Wray, choosing a specialty in pediatric oncology came from a very personal experience – in college, a close childhood friend of hers died from cancer. “I wanted to care for others as I wish he had been cared for and advance care for pediatric oncology patients as a whole,” says Dr. Wray.

She is particularly excited by the progress the scientific community is making in treating childhood cancers, especially with stem cell transplant and CAR T-cell therapies. “I am fascinated by the science underlying these therapies which continues to rapidly evolve,” Dr. Wray says.

A scientist at heart, she doesn’t lose sight of the individual needs of each patient. “We have an incredible spectrum of people and services caring for every patient. We attempt to care for every patient and family as we would care for our own,” she says.

Dr. Wray earned her medical degree at Temple University School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency, as well as a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is currently an associate professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Wray has published several papers and presented on various topics within oncology; she also served for four years on the Expert Review Board for KidsHealth.org.  She is a long-standing member of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT), American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the Children's Oncology Group (COG).

Dr. Wray’s current research focuses on improving stem cell transplant and CAR T-cell therapies. Within the realm of stem cell transplants, her work is aimed at optimizing nutrition for patients undergoing transplant. Regarding CAR T-cell therapy, she is interested by how the immune system is affected by, and recovers following, the therapy. “I’m excited to see CAR T-cell therapies be used to treat an ever-expanding range of diagnoses,” she says.