Bio


Dr. Therkelsen is a board-certified, fellowship-trained neuro-oncologist with the Stanford Medicine Cancer Center and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences.

She diagnoses and treats a wide range of conditions including primary brain tumors and cancers of the central nervous system, metastatic disease to the brain and spinal cord, and neurologic complications of cancer. She prepares a personalized, comprehensive care plan for each patient she serves.

Dr. Therkelsen’s research interests include clinical trials of new therapeutics, as well as ways to reduce toxicities that some patients may experience when receiving cancer treatment. Her fellowship research projects included a study of survival and long-term function among patients treated for primary central nervous system lymphoma. She also received a pre-doctoral National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Training Award for her work with the Framingham Heart Study.

She has published in Current Treatment Options in Oncology and other peer-reviewed journals. She has presented to her peers at international, national, and regional meetings, including the annual meetings of the Society of Neuro-Oncology and of the American Academy of Neurology.

Dr. Therkelsen is a member of the Society of Neuro-Oncology and the American Academy of Neurology.

Clinical Focus


  • Neurology

Academic Appointments


Professional Education


  • Fellowship: Memorial Sloan Kettering GME Verifications (2022) NY
  • Board Certification: United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties, Neuro-Oncology (2021)
  • Board Certification: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Neurology (2020)
  • Residency: Stanford University Neurology Residency (2020) CA
  • Internship: Mount Auburn Hospital Internal Medicine Residency (2017) MA
  • Medical Education: Boston University School of Medicine (2016) MA

All Publications


  • A Medical Legal Curriculum for Residents to Increase Physician Comfort in Patient Interactions Therkelsen, K., Yang, L. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2019
  • Utilizing Single Cell Immune Profiling to Identify Serum-based Biomarkers for Transient Ischemic Attacks Therkelsen, K., Tsai, A., Mlynash, M., Oh, B., Eyngorn, I., Gaudilliere, B., George, P. LIPPINCOTT WILLIAMS & WILKINS. 2019
  • Current State of Immunotherapy for Treatment of Glioblastoma. Current treatment options in oncology McGranahan, T., Therkelsen, K. E., Ahmad, S., Nagpal, S. 2019; 20 (3): 24

    Abstract

    OPINION STATEMENT: At this time, there are no FDA-approved immune therapies for glioblastoma (GBM) despite many unique therapies currently in clinical trials. GBM is a highly immunosuppressive tumor and there are limitations to a safe immune response in the central nervous system. To date, there have been several failures of phase 3 immune therapy clinical trials in GBM. These trials have targeted single components of an antitumor immune response. Learning from these failures, the future of immunotherapy for GBM appears most hopeful for combination of immune therapies to overcome the profound immunosuppression of this disease. Understanding biomarkers for appropriate patient selection as well as tumor progression are necessary for implementation of immunotherapy for GBM.

    View details for PubMedID 30790064