Graduated from Peking Union Medical College in 1996 with an 8-year clinical medicine program and obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree, and received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. Completed pathology residency and subspecialty training in surgical and gynecologic pathology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States from 2001 to 2007, during which time studied gynecologic pathology, genitourinary pathology, and pancreatic pathology systematically under world-renowned pathologists Dr. Robert Kurman, Dr. Jonathan Epstein, and Dr. Ralph Hruban. In 2007, served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in the United States, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012. Professor Cao returned to China full-time from 2011 to 2014 to serve as Director, Professor, Chief Physician, Doctoral Supervisor, and Director of the Pathology Teaching and Research Section of the Department of Pathology at Peking University Cancer Hospital, leading the Department of Pathology at Peking University Cancer Hospital to obtain the 2013 National Clinical Key Specialty designation. From August 2014 to July 2015, served as Deputy Director and Chief Physician (Professor) of the Department of Pathology at Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. Returned to the Department of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in August 2015, was promoted to Full Professor in July 2018, and was named an Outstanding Teacher of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for the 2017-2018 academic year. In October 2020, assumed the position of Chief Pathology Expert at Shanghai Kangwan Pathology Diagnosis Center. In February 2024, assumed the position of Director of the Department of Pathology at Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Cao Dengfeng is engaged in the clinical practice, scientific research, and teaching of obstetric and gynecologic pathology and surgical pathology, and has high attainments in tumor pathology, with particular expertise in obstetric and gynecologic pathology, genitourinary system pathology, and pancreatic pathology. In 2009, Professor Cao discovered that SALL4 is the most sensitive germ cell tumor marker. Has published more than 110 SCI papers, and the papers have been cited more than 9,500 times. Invited by the World Health Organization, Professor Cao Dengfeng participated in the compilation of the 2014 fourth edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of the Female Reproductive Organs and the 2016 fourth edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of the Urinary System and Male Genital Organs, and served as a World Health Organization core expert for these two classifications, and also participated in the compilation of the 2020 fifth edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of the Female Genital Tract.