I am a board-certified pediatric hematologic oncologist who specializes in bone marrow transplantation. I am also the Medical Director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Pediatric Day Hospital, a state-of-the-art facility where we provide the majority of treatment for children and young adults with cancer in a bright, uplifting setting.
Bone marrow transplantation brings together science and human medicine in an intellectually stimulating way. I educate parents of our patients about the options we can offer their children and advise them on the plan of therapy that we feel is best. It is one of the few fields of medicine where you get so close to the patient and his or her family, and are able to give so much of yourself as a physician.
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In my research, I am seeking new therapies that are more effective while causing fewer side effects. One of my main research interests is new treatments for children with leukemia. I have developed several approaches for bone marrow transplantation that do not require total body irradiation (an approach used to destroy diseased bone marrow) and instead rely only on chemotherapy.
Memorial Sloan-Kettering is a center of excellence for the care of children with bone marrow failure syndromes and low blood cell counts. I have developed a program for the diagnosis and management of these disorders and collaborate with other MSKCC based investigators and scientists at The Rockefeller University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to research new approaches for these rare disorders.
Doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering are among the most experienced in the country in the use of bone marrow transplants to treat children with thalassemia and sickle cell disease. We are establishing ourselves as a leading center for the treatment of these diseases, attracting patients from all over the world. I am investigating new ways to manage these diseases, including clinical research evaluating gene therapy.
Hearing that your child has cancer is one of the worst things anyone can experience. I have decided to give everything I can to children with cancer and their families to help them travel through this journey with compassion and good cheer. My greatest joy comes from seeing my patients smile and hearing their laughter. I find it enormously gratifying to see us achieving better and better survival rates, which means that more patients are growing up to live productive lives. In fact, one of the my greatest sources of satisfaction is attending the wedding of one of my patients.
