Based in Milan, Prof. Colombo is faculty member at the University of Milan-Bicocca and Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Program at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan  (IEO). She has served as the Chair of the Division of Medical Gynaecologic Oncology and Director of the Ovarian Cancer Center of the IEO  since 2014.

Prof. Colombo received her medical degree from the University of Milan before completing her specialist training in obstetrics and gynaecology in 1984. From 1984 to 1986, she worked as a Clinical Research Associate at the Kaplan Cancer Center of New York University. Following this, Prof. Colombo served as a member of the Junior and later Senior Faculty at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Milan before being appointed in 2002.

Prof. Colombo has participated as principal investigator and coordinator of Italian centres for several international clinical trials. She has authored ≥350 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and has served on the Editorial Boards of several, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, and the International Journal of Gynecological Oncology, the latter as Senior Editor. Prof. Colombo has been an invited speaker at ≥200 congresses and was the Chair of the first ESMO–ESGO–ESTRO Consensus Conference in endometrial cancer in 2015, and of the first European Society of Gynaecological (ESGO) Consensus Conference in ovarian cancer in 2018. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO), ASCO and the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS). In addition, Prof. Colombo previously held the positions of President of the ESGO and Subject Editor of ESMO Clinical Guidelines for Gynaecological Malignancies. She is the current chair of ENGOT .  In 2020, Prof. Colombo received the IGCS Lifetime Achievement Award  and in 2023 she received the ESGO Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her work in gynecological oncology.