Marlon Kleinman,MD

Marlon Kleinman, MD, joined City of Hope^® Cancer Center in November 2023 with more than 25 years of experience in hematology/oncology. Working primarily in the City of Hope Cancer Care North Shore location, Dr. Kleinman brings extensive experience and expertise in treating all types of cancer, from solid tumors to malignant hematologic diseases. Board-certified in medical oncology, hematology and internal medicine, he incorporates precision medicine approaches, including advanced genomic testing, into his care, leveraging treatment interventions designed to target genomic mutations that are driving the cancer’s behavior.

With a medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Kleinman completed his residency training in internal medicine at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke Medical Center, during which he served as chief resident. After a three-year hematology/oncology fellowship at Northwestern University, he spent nearly three decades treating blood and solid tumor patients in the Chicago area before joining City of Hope.

Dr. Kleinman has been an attending physician and instructor with Rush University’s Chest Tumor Multidisciplinary Clinic in Chicago, Illinois, where he served as medical director of Rush North Shore’s Genetic Counseling and Risk Assessment for Familial Cancers program. He has also worked as a medical consultant for a Chicago-area supportive oncology program and as a medical adviser for a palliative care practice.

Recognizing that each patient is unique and requires a diagnosis based on a specific understanding of his or her disease, Dr. Kleinman is driven by a strong commitment to integrating investigative medicine into his practice. A leader in his field, he has lectured and served as clinical advisor on a wide range of research topics, including liquid biopsies and genetic counseling and risk assessment for hereditary cancer syndromes, and some of his authored and co-authored publications have appeared in prestigious medical journals like Blood. He also has a special interest in cancer prevention and wellness programs, improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and reducing diabetes, obesity and other comorbidities. His interest in rare diseases was piqued by one of his mentors’ mantra: “In order to be a good specialist, one must be a good generalist, even if a set of symptoms and discovery bring us to rule out a diagnosis within our specialty. Nevertheless, we must retain our excitement and motivation to find the deeper truth to explain what ’ails the patient’.”

Also devoted to preparing the next generation of physicians, Dr. Kleinman has participated in training programs for medical students, residents, fellows and physician assistant students at many institutions in the Chicago area and elsewhere, including Rush University Medical College, Rush North Shore Medical Center and St. George's University in London, England.

While pursuing a career and training in medicine, Dr. Kleinman spent time studying music. Outside of City of Hope, he continues to find inspiration in music as a cantor at his local synagogue. The great-grandson of a synagogue cantor, Dr. Kleinman came to realize the unique overlap between his two passions.

“Both music and medicine are about tempo,” he says. “Even amongst patients with the same diagnosis, each illness has its own mood, its own rhythm, its own crescendos and decrescendos and these are crucial considerations in treating the disease. Survival is more than just remission. It is a collective symphony of all the things one does with their time in order to create harmony within and around themselves. Survival is not merely a status; it is an opportunity.”

Outside of City of Hope, Dr. Kleinman resides with his wife, Leonora, in Highland Park, Illinois.