Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis

Get to Know Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis

Thoracic medical oncologist Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis is the director of the Penn Medicine Mesothelioma and Pleural Disease Program. She is a mesothelioma specialist at the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Marmarelis is also the co-director of the Molecular Tumor Board at the University of Pennsylvania.

Along with her many roles, she spends time helping to guide and teach the next generation of medical professionals as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Marmarelis’ work includes research efforts centered around early-phase clinical trials in mesothelioma and lung cancer. She studies factors that affect the outcome of therapy resistance, sensitivity, molecular characteristics and testing in non-small cell lung cancer.

She earned a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and hematology/oncology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Marmarelis is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.

Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis’s Experience and Medical Education

• Harvard Medical School (M.D.)
• Dartmouth College (B.A.)
• University of Pennsylvania Health System (Residency)
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Residency)

Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis Specialties

• Cancer Immunotherapy 
• Chemotherapy for Cancer
• Diaphragm Tumor 
• EGFR Mutation Large Cell Cancer of the Lung 
• Lung Cancer 
• Lung Cancer Genomics 
• Lung Carcinoid Tumor 
• Lung Sarcoma
• Mesothelioma
• Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
• Pleural Cancer Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma (Lung Adenocarcinoma) 
• Small Cell Lung Cancer 
• Squamous Cell Lung Carcinoma 
• Thoracic Cancer
• Thymoma and Thymic Carcinoma 
• Thymus Cancer

Certifications, Licenses and Memberships

• Certified in Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Certified in Medical Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Pennsylvania State Medical License, 2016-2024
• Academic Thoracic Oncology Medical Investigators Consortium, Member
• American Society of Clinical Oncology, Member
• AstraZeneca International, Member
• Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs Mesothelioma panel, Member
• Ikena Oncology, Member
• International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, Member

Dr. Melina Elpi Marmarelis’s Publications

Patil, T., Marmarelis, M. et al. (2024, February 4). The Efficacy and Safety of Treating Acquired MET Resistance Through Combinations of Parent and MET Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in Patients With Metastatic Oncogene-Driven NSCLC. JTO Clinical and Research Reports.

Barsouk, A., Marmarelis, M. et al. (2023, December 22). Plunging Into the PACIFIC: Outcomes of Patients With Unresectable KRAS-Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Following Definitive Chemoradiation and Durvalumab Consolidation. Clinical Lung Cancer.

Burns, L., Marmarelis, M. et al. (2023, December 1). Disparities in outcomes between Black and White patients in North America with thoracic malignancies and COVID-19 infection (TERAVOLT). Lung Cancer.