Roswell Park Community Mourns Loss of Oscar Colegio, MD, PhD

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center staff and patients are mourning a devastating loss. Oscar Colegio, MD, PhD, the Lawrence P. & Joan Castellani Family Endowed Chair in Dermatology at the Buffalo-based cancer center, died unexpectedly this weekend at a family residence in Connecticut. He was 47.

Dr. Colegio relocated to Buffalo when he was recruited to head Roswell Park’s dermatology program in 2018. He had previously served as Associate Professor of Dermatology, Pathology and Surgery at Yale University.

“Our hearts are with Dr. Colegio’s family,” says Roswell Park President and CEO Candace S. Johnson, PhD.

“In only two years’ time, he became a dear friend, trusted physician and valued colleague to so many,” Dr. Johnson adds. “He embraced his adoptive home of Buffalo and the Elmwood Village with warmth and friendship. Given who Oscar was personally and professionally, all that he accomplished and the passion with which he pursued his work, this loss leaves an enormous hole.”

A clinician and scientist with more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Colegio led the International Immunosuppression and Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative (ITSCC), a professional society dedicated to understanding skin cancer in organ transplant recipients, as President.

He specialized in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, melanoma, immunology, immunodeficiency-associated skin cancers and solid organ transplantation. Consistently named to the national Top Doctors list, he earned doctoral and medical degrees from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

A native of Texas, Dr. Colegio is survived by his wife, Brenda, and two sons, Otto and Austin.

A fund will be established in his name to support research on cancers of the skin. A gift in his memory may be designated to this fund at RoswellPark.org/giving.

Michael Bax, MD, and Gyorgy Paragh, MD, PhD, will co-lead Roswell Park’s Department of Dermatology at this time.

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Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a community united by the drive to eliminate cancer’s grip on humanity by unlocking its secrets through personalized approaches and unleashing the healing power of hope. Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, it is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. Learn more at www.roswellpark.org, or contact us at 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or ASKRoswell@RoswellPark.org.