Natalie Silver, MD

Natalie Silver MD, MS, FACS, is Staff at the Cleveland Clinic Head & Neck Institute and serves as the Director of Head and Neck Cancer Research. Dr. Silver is a surgeon-scientist with a translational research lab studying oral cancer in the Center of Immunotherapy and Precision Immuno-Oncology in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute.

Dr. Silver obtained her medical degree from Georgetown University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. She also received her Master's Degree in Tumor Biology from the Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She completed her Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery residency at the University of Kentucky. She then went to UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston Texas, for advanced training in head and neck cancer and completed both a research and clinical fellowship. She spent one year as a research fellow conducting basic science research and her clinical year was spent learning advanced surgical techniques for head and neck cancer. While faculty at the University of Florida, Dr. Silver served as the UF Health Cancer Center Head and Neck Cancer Disease Site Group Research Leader for six years and was site-Prinicpal Investigator (PI) for many head and neck cancer clinical trials.

Dr. Silver is a member of the American Board of Orolaryngology, American Head and Neck Society, American College of Surgeons, the Society for Immunotherapy for Cancer, and the American Association for Cancer Research. She has received several research grants (including a National Institutes of Health (NIH K08 award) and has published multiple research articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as having contributed abstracts and presentations at a number of professional association meetings. Her lab research focus is on developing therapeutic mRNA nano-vaccines for head and neck cancer, and exploring the role of the microbiome in oral cancer.

Dr. Silver is an active head and neck surgical oncologist specializing in ablative head and neck cancer surgery and endocrine surgery. Her goal is to provide the best surgical care for her patients in a multi-disciplinary setting, ensuring that the patient is offered the best, most advanced, individualized care. In additional to providing excellent surgical care, Dr. Silver is working toward building a better future for her patients by studying cancer in the laboratory and translating these discoveries to the clinic.

Listen to Dr. Silver on our Head and Neck Innovations podcast: The Latest on Oral Cancer Clinical Trials