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National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov
About DCEG

Gladys M. Glenn, M.D., Ph.D.

Location: Executive Plaza South, Rm 7108
Phone: 301-402-9528
Fax: 301-402-4489
E-mail: glenng@mail.nih.gov

  

Biography

Dr. Glenn received an M.D. in 1976 and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology in 1979, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Graduate School, respectively. She completed her Medical Internship and Internal Medicine Residency in 1982 at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Her Oncology Fellowship training from 1982-1984 was at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center in Baltimore. In 1984, she joined the National Cancer Institute’s Laboratory of Immunobiology. While there, she began molecular biology investigations with her colleagues that led to identification of the von Hippel-Lindau disease gene, the first of several hereditary kidney cancer susceptibility genes identified later by this group of multidisciplinary associates.

During this time, Dr. Glenn was credentialed at the NIH Clinical Center and became a co-investigator on the Urologic Malignancy Protocol of the Urologic Oncology Branch of Surgery at NCI. Dr. Glenn began combining her laboratory work with her screening clinic. For a period of eighteen years, her activities included service as the primary physician for comprehensive clinical diagnostic screening of hundreds of at-risk individuals from families affected by von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, as well as linkage analyses and gene cloning for VHL, BHD, MET (HPRC) and FH (HLRCC). For a six-year period after joining the NCI Cancer Diagnosis Branch, Dr. Glenn continued clinical investigative screenings of hereditary kidney cancers. Here she served as both a Medical and Project Officer, and received the Public Health Service Special Achievement Award. In 1996, Dr. Glenn expanded her clinical investigations of cancer genetics when she joined the Family Studies Section of the Genetic Epidemiology Branch. She continues as physician and clinical genetic investigator in the screening clinic for new cases of hereditary kidney cancer syndromes and genodermatoses cases in family investigations for associated internal malignancies.

Research Interests

  • Epidemiologic studies of factors that affect development and growth of benign and malignant neoplasms of von Hippel-Lindau disease (n >500 participants).
  • Genodermatoses and kidney cancer in Birt-Hogg-Dubé Syndrome and Hereditary Leiomyomatoses and Renal Cell Cancer (>80 kindreds)
  • Phenotype/Genotype correlations in kindreds with mutations in the VHL, MET, BHD, and FH genes.

Keywords

hereditary kidney cancer, von Hippel-Lindau disease, Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, hereditary papillary renal carcinoma, hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell carcinoma.

Selected Publications

  • Blansfield JA, Choyke L, Morita SY, Choyke PL, Pingpank JF, Alexander HR, Seidel G, Shutack Y, Yuldasheva N, Eugeni M, Bartlett DL, Glenn GM, Middelton L, Linehan WM, Libutti SK. Clinical, genetic and radiographic analysis of 108 patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) manifested by pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PNETs). Surgery 2007;142:814-818.
  • Toro JR, Pautler SE, Stewart L, Glenn GM, Weinreich M, Toure O, Wei MH, Schmidt LS, Davis L, Zbar B, Choyke P, Steinberg SM, Nguyen DM, Linehan WM. Lung cysts, spontaneous pneumothorax and genetic associations in 89 families with Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2007;175:1044-1053.
  • Grubb RL 3rd, Franks ME, Toro J, Middleton L, Choyke L, Fowler S, Torres-Cabala C, Glenn GM, Choyke P, Merino MJ, Zbar B, Pinto PA, Strinivasan R, Coleman JA, Linehan WM. Hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer: a syndrome associated with an aggressive form of inherited renal cancer. J Urol 2007;177:2074-2079.
  • Pithukpakorn M, Wei MH, Toure O, Steinbach PJ, Glenn GM, Zbar B, Linehan WM, Toro JR. Fumarate Hydratase enzyme activity in lymphoblastoid cells and fibroblasts of individuals in families with hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer. J Med Genet 2006;43:755-762.
  • Wei MH, Toure O, Glenn GM, Pithukpakorn M, Neckers L, Stolle C, Choyke P, Grubb R, Middleton L, Turner ML, Walther MM, Merino MJ, Zbar B, Linehan WM, Toro JR. Novel mutations in FH and expansion of the spectrum of phenotypes expressed in families with hereditary leiomyomatosis and renal cell cancer. J Med Genet. 2006;43:18-27.
  • Glenn GM, Choyke PL, Walther MM, Libutti SK, Chew EY, Kim HJ, Middleton L, Oldfield EH, Linehan WM. Von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome. In: Martini L, ed., Encyclopedia of Endocrine Diseases, Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier Academic Press, 1st Edition. 2004;4:674-687.
  • Schmidt LS, Nickerson ML, Walther MM, Glenn GM, Warren MB, Angeloni D, Albert PS, Choyke PL, Torres-Cabala C, Merino MJ, Brunet J, Berez V, Borrs J, Sesia G, Middelton L, Phillips, JL, Stolle C, Zbar B, Pautler SE, Linehan WM. Early onset hereditary papillary renal carcinoma: Germline missense mutations in the tyrosine kinase domain of the MET proto-oncogene. J Urol 2004;172:1256-1261.
  • Lonser RR, Glenn GM, Walther M, Chew EY, Libutti SK, Linehan WM, Oldfield EH. Seminar: von Hippel-Lindau Disease. Lancet 2003;361:2059-2067.
  • McNeil DE, Linehan WM, Glenn GM. Comorbid VHL and SCA2 mutations in a large kindred: confounding diagnosis of neurological dysfunction caused by CNS VHL vascular tumors versus SCA2 atrophic neurodegeneration. J Med Genet 2002;39:1-4.
  • Sgambati MT, Stolle C, Choyke PL, Walther MM, Zbar B, Linehan WM, Glenn GM. Mosaicism in von Hippel-Lindau disease: lessons from kindreds with germline mutations identified in offspring with mosaic parents. Am J Hum Genet 2000;66:84-91.