Dr Rachna Shroff, a renowned cancer researcher at the University of Arizona, has died at the age of 47 from an aggressive cancer, the same disease she spent her career trying to cure.

The University of Arizona and the American Society of Clinical Oncology confirmed her death on October 12, 2026, stating that she passed away following a battle with an aggressive form of cancer.

Shroff was Associate Director of Clinical Investigations at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the College of Medicine Tucson.

She was also the inaugural John F and Valli S Duval Endowed Professor for Gastrointestinal Oncology.

She was internationally recognized for her work in bile duct cancer, known as cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and historically difficult to treat disease. At the time she began focusing on the condition, few treatment options existed and no Food and Drug Administration approved therapies were available.

Through landmark clinical trials led as principal investigator, she helped transform the field and expand treatment options for patients.

Shroff was diagnosed earlier this year after developing a swollen lymph node in May. Medical evaluation initially suspected lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Further testing showed the cancer had spread and likely originated in the stomach or intestine, with a final diagnosis of terminal adenocarcinoma, a cancer that starts in glandular cells lining organs. There was no cure for the condition.

Despite the diagnosis, Shroff continued to work, attending a major oncology conference days after learning of her illness to highlight clinical breakthroughs and advocate for patients.

In a Zoom interview before her death, she described the experience as a journey, noting that her entire professional life had been devoted to eradicating cancer, primarily pancreatic cancer and liver cancers.

Born Rachna Trivedi in 1978 or 1979, she was raised in Tucson by a biochemist father and a nephrologist mother. Her interest in cancer research began early, receiving the 1993 Osler Fellowship as a high school student to work in a laboratory at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. She later earned a degree in biochemistry from Brown University and a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University, and worked at MD Anderson Cancer Center before returning to Arizona in 2018.

She authored more than 80 scientific publications and delivered over 130 professional presentations during her career.

In September, in the face of her own life limiting cancer, she established a permanent source of funding for future researchers, the Conquer Cancer Rachna Shroff Endowed Young Investigator Award in Biliary Cancer. Within weeks, the initiative raised more than 1.35 million dollars, fulfilling one of her final wishes to support the next generation of investigators.

Colleagues described her as an internationally revered clinician scientist, mentor and leader whose work reshaped gastrointestinal oncology, and praised her personal motto, If you cannot find the sunshine, be the sunshine.

She is survived by her husband, Dr Puneet Shroff, a physician and professor of medicine, their two children, Simran aged 17 and Sachin aged 13, her parents Devendar and Amita Trivedi, and her sister Neema Sahni.

Before her death, she celebrated family milestones, including college visits with her daughter and baseball games with her son, ahead of what would have been her 20th wedding anniversary.