Peter G. Steinherz, MD

For more than 35 years here at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I have directed the administration of therapy to children and adolescents with leukemia. During this time, my colleagues and I developed new treatment protocols, including the New York I and New York II protocols, which are now used as the standard of care all over the world. These protocols have improved the survival of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) — the most common cancer in children — from 50 percent in the 1970s to more than 80 percent for high-risk, and more than 90% for standard-risk patients today.

We have also studied new drugs and new combinations of drugs in patients with leukemia that has become resistant to standard therapies, and we have improved the survival of these children and young adults. We are continuing research to develop more-effective therapies for pediatric leukemia that returns despite initial treatment (“relapsed disease”).

I have been a member of the Leukemia Strategy Group of the Children’s Oncology Group for more than 20 years. I have chaired or co-chaired 11 large national/international studies for the Group and have been a committee member of many other investigations. These research studies evaluate different treatments, including experimental therapies, for young patients with leukemia, lymphoma, or other cancers. I am a member of the committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network that develops national guidelines for the treatment of children with ALL. I am a principal investigator of the Children’s Oncology Group.

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, we have state-of-the-art therapies for cancers and cancer-related problems that are most frequently seen in young patients, but we also treat a number of children who have unique or unusual tumors or cancer-related illnesses. We treat each child or young adult as an individual and, when necessary, we will tailor-make therapies to meet their individual needs. Instead of trying to fit a patient to a therapy, we make the therapy fit the patient’s unique needs and do everything possible to help them get better.

We were among the first to recognize the stress that cancer and its treatment can have on children and their families, and we have reported on the long-term physical and emotional effects of cancer therapy in young patients. For many years, we have used interventions to minimize these effects. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a patient after completion of therapy returning to normal activities, and recalling no negative memories of the treatment process. I love to go to their happy life events; Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and watch their own children grow.