Head, Neuroblastoma Program; Enid A. Haupt Chair in Pediatric Oncology
I am a pediatric oncologist who specializes in immunologic approaches for diagnosing and treating pediatric cancers. My main focus is the treatment of neuroblastoma, a tumor that arises from primitive cells of the sympathetic nervous system and that primarily affects young children. My colleagues and I have developed multi-modality therapies that have dramatically improved the outlook for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. Today, more than 50 percent of patients with metastatic neuroblastoma treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering survive the disease, compared to fewer than 5 percent in the 1980s. Moreover, most patients with localized neuroblastoma are cureable today and many can be treated effectively with surgery alone.
More recently, we have initiated new treatment approaches for metastatic neuroblastoma that bring together several of the best methods for attacking this disease: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, isotretinoin, and targeted therapy with monoclonal antibodies. We are also actively involved in early clinical trials of novel therapies, including biologics and vaccines, natural killer cells, and their combinations with other treatments. We hope that effective treatments for neuroblastoma will provide a paradigm for other metastatic solid tumors of children and adolescents.
In the laboratory, we are testing tumor markers of early metastasis and recurrence, improving and humanizing antibodies to established and novel tumor targets, arming them with powerful isotopes for diagnosis and therapy. Many of these antibodies have potential applications for other solid tumors in adolescents and even adults. We are also screening new drugs that can overcome neuroblastoma resistance to standard therapy. We try to unmask the genetic and biochemical makeup of neuroblastic tumors and to test if tumor profiling at the time of diagnosis can tell us how aggressive a tumor is and what kind of therapy is most effective. Our major thrust continues to be discovery of biologics and drugs, their clinical translation, and the ultimate eradication of a horrible disease.
Phone
646-888-2313
Education
MD, Harvard Medical School; PhD,
Harvard University
