Dr. Varella is an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is a clinical expert in the care of patients with breast cancer, with a focus in young women with breast cancer. She was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil where she completed her training in Medical Oncology. She moved to the United States for a research fellowship in Cancer Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic, followed by a clinical fellowship in Experimental Therapeutics. Following her residency in Internal Medicine, she spent a year as a Chief Resident at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She then completed a fellowship in Hematology & Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. After her training, Dr. Varella joined the breast cancer group coming from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York where she was an Assistant Professor of Medicine specialized in the treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Varella has a special clinical and research focus on improving outcomes in young patients with breast cancer. Her recent research innovations include leading a project at DFCI in which she is investigating the factors associated with survival in young patients with metastatic breast cancer from the Young Women's Breast Cancer study (YWS) at DFCI. She also supervises and teaches Internal Medicine residents and Medical Oncology fellows at DFCI.