Yasmin Khakoo, MD

I recently received two years of funding from the Cycle for Survival Foundation to study low grade gliomas in children. As the principal investigator, I, along with my collaborators at Memorial Sloan Kettering — Neal Rosen, Ingo Mellinghoff, and Jeffrey Greenfield — will obtain fresh tissue from patients undergoing surgical resection of low grade glioma to study, in the laboratory, the effects of novel medications on these tumors. During the second phase of the study, promising compounds will be tested in patients.

In collaboration with my colleagues in the Brain Tumor Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I am involved in several clinical trials to evaluate novel approaches to treating patients with newly diagnosed and recurrent brain tumors.

I am also conducting research on the development of cerebellar mutism (also called posterior fossa syndrome), a complication seen in patients who have had surgery for medulloblastoma. This syndrome can deprive patients of the ability to speak and may cause trouble with walking, chewing, eating, and swallowing. In addition, I have a special interest in paraneoplastic syndromes in patients with neuroblastoma and other childhood cancers. Such syndromes may include impairment of walking, talking, and eye movement. 

In the clinic, I specialize in caring for children who have a rare neurologic condition called neurocutaneous melanocytosis, which is sometimes seen in patients with large congenital melanocytic nevi (abnormal moles). I have an interest and expertise in treating patients with ependymoma, and I am the primary investigator at MSK for the Collaborative Ependymoma Research Network clinical trial for children with recurrent ependymoma.

In addition to my clinical and research responsibilities, I teach and supervise residents and fellows and in 2005 founded MSK’s Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Fellowship; I served as Director from 2005 to 2014. I continue to be heavily involved in running the fellowship. Fellows who train here have the benefit of a large volume of patients cared for by an experienced team of leading clinicians. I also work with the Communication Skills Research and Training Laboratory, which provides communication-skills training to physicians and nurses in various areas (medical, surgical, and radiation oncology; pain and palliative care; critical care; radiology; and pediatrics).