Surgical Oncology Research | NYU Langone Health

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Division of Surgical Oncology Surgical Oncology Research

Surgical Oncology Research

Faculty in NYU Langone’s Division of Surgical Oncology conduct research that advances the field, tests new surgical devices and techniques, and improves outcomes for our patients. The following are our areas and programs of research.

Breast Cancer Research

The following members of our faculty conduct research in breast cancer:

High-Risk Cancer Consortium

The High-Risk Cancer Consortium is a longitudinal data registry that collects background data on women at high risk of breast cancer. The consortium team, led by Freya R. Schnabel, MD, monitors and tracks patient outcomes to draw meaningful conclusions about the optimal method of surveillance for various age groups and risk categories. Goals of this ongoing research include understanding the following:

  • more about the different factors that can modify a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer
  • how best to use interventions such as risk-reducing surgeries or medications that reduce risk for developing breast cancer
  • the long-terms result of risk-reducing surgeries and how patients should be monitored afterward

For more information about the High-Risk Cancer Consortium and its research, contact Nakisa Pourkey, research and grants program director, at nakisa.pourkey@nyulangone.org.

Gastrointestinal Cancer Research

Surgery is often the mainstay in the treatment of most gastrointestinal tumors, making the Division of Surgical Oncology a critical part of Perlmutter Cancer Center. The following division faculty are actively involved in many clinical and translational research endeavors as members of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Disease Management Group, using the most advanced approaches to improve cancer care and outcomes for the people we treat:

Gastric cancer is a major worldwide health problem and of particular interest in the New York City area due to large immigrant populations that suffer from high rates of gastric cancer. Clinical research trials examining the novel use of chemotherapy and the new molecular targeted agents such as cetuximab (Erbitux®) both before and after gastroesophageal junction or gastric cancer surgery have been ongoing since 1998. In addition, adding hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC)—a method of delivering high concentrations of chemotherapy drugs directly into the abdomen at the sites of the cancer—to the treatment regimen is being investigated to determine whether this approach can decrease the chance of the cancer recurrence and improve outcome.

Ours is the first group that has attempted to combine intraperitoneal chemotherapy with radiation therapy to determine whether the combination can further improve outcome. The results of our work examining chemotherapy before surgery with Cisplatin and CPT-11 and intraperitoneal chemotherapy after surgery have been presented at national and international meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals with good results. Our trial investigating intraperitoneal chemotherapy and radiation following surgery for advanced gastric cancer was recently completed, and results are now being analyzed.

Melanoma and Sarcoma Research

The following Division of Surgical Oncology faculty members conduct melanoma and sarcoma research:

Clinical Trials

Our clinicians and scientists conduct clinical trials and research studies to investigate new treatments for people who have cancer. Find a cancer clinical trial.