Marcia F. Kalin, MD

Diabetes is common among cancer patients for a number of reasons. As this metabolic condition becomes more common in the general population, increasing numbers of people have preexisting diabetes when they are diagnosed with cancer. Another reason is that some drugs commonly used to lessen the side effects of chemotherapy — as well as certain chemotherapy drugs themselves (particularly some of the newer ones) — can cause or worsen diabetes. When treating people with diabetes and cancer, blood-sugar control is vital because high blood-sugar levels increase the risk of infection — a major health risk to people fighting cancer.

I take care of patients both in the hospital and in the clinic, and consult with nearly all of our disease management teams on patients with a diversity of cancers. I led a team that developed an algorithm for insulin use in inpatients that is now a Memorial Sloan Kettering standard. Some experimental chemotherapeutic agents can cause or worsen diabetes, and I have been a co-investigator on several clinical trials of new cancer drug alternatives. I have been an invited guest at many grand rounds lectures to speak about blood-sugar control and its importance in cancer management.

I am also involved in training medical interns in Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Transitional Year Residency Program, and in guiding endocrinology fellows in the joint program between our hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College.

On a national level, I am an active member of the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and I sit on the board of directors for both the American Journal of Hypertension and the Metropolitan Diabetes Society.