Skip to content

Research

Medical Oncology Division

Advancing clinical care…...

Our faculty are active participants in research activities organized under the auspices of the multidisciplinary Research Programs of the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. These programs are generally built around 10-30 collaborating multidisciplinary faculty who work to facilitate cancer discovery and translation of basic findings into the clinic. Our physicians and scientists are also engaged in over 250 clinical trials including some 150 therapeutic, Phase I, II, and II clinical trials. Numerous projects are funded by the National Cancer Institute and other outside peer reviewed funding agencies, as well as by pharmaceutical concerns, and offer unique clinical and therapeutic options in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention to cancer patients.

Activities of hematology/oncology divisional faculty include a wide range of research activities in basic, translational and clinical arenas. Divisional faculty are national leaders who have made major contributions to our understanding and treatment of cancer and blood disorders. A robust research program includes multiple federally funded grants, numerous non-federally funded peer-reviewed research projects, and over 150 industry sponsored clinical trials. Research efforts within the division are supported by the NIH, NHLBI, NCI, and non-federal funding agencies such as the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society and the American Cancer Society. In addition, we are active members of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, a large cooperative research group facilitating multi-institutional cancer clinical trials. The division also maintains an active Phase I and Phase II clinical trial program and represents the only Phase I program for testing of novel agents within South Florida. Divisional faculty is at the forefront of development of advanced new treatments in application of cutting edge technologies.

The faculty has been able to develop and pioneer innovative strategies for dealing with a variety of human cancers. The faculty has worked to translate laboratory breakthroughs into more effective treatments and they conduct more clinical research than any institution within South Florida. The divisional research programs have expanded dramatically in recent years with the recruitment of faculty with specialized expertise in research and treatment of musculoskeletal malignancies and sarcoma such as Drs. Jonathan Trent and Breelyn Wilky, nationally recognized experts in bone marrow transplantation such as Dr. Krishna Komanduri and Lazaros Lekakis, accomplished leukemia investigators including Dr. Stephen Nimer (Director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center), and Dr. Ronan Swords, accomplished breast cancer investigators including Drs Marc Lippman and Joyce Slingerland, and nationally recognized lymphoma investigators such as Dr. Izidore Lossos.

Recent recruitment has included the recent arrival of lung cancer experts on international repute such as Drs. Ariel Lopez-Chavez, as well as experts in areas such as melanoma and immunotherapy such as Dr. Nicolas Aquavella from the National Cancer Institute.

The division continues to expand research activities in close collaboration with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as the Department of Medicine in an effort to increase the scope and breadth of the high quality of research conducted within the division.
Divisional faculty have chaired and/or lectured at numerous international and national venues of importance, including the International Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Society of Hematology and American Association of Cancer Research meetings, and serve prominently in leadership positions in numerous national and international organizations.

Divisional faculty are active participants in Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center multidisciplinary research programs including Biobehavioral Oncology, Molecular Oncology, Molecular and Experimental Therapeutics, a Tumor Immunobiology and Immunotherapy, Viral Oncology, Breast Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, and the Genitourinary Malignancies Program. Research efforts in the division have contributed to the testing and approval of novel agents recently approved by the FDA including brentuximab, as well as multiple other novel agents currently in advanced clinical testing. Additionally, members of the division are noted for seminal contributions to understanding of the pathoegnesis and the management of hematologic disorders such as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and autoimmune idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Special expertise is also available within the division to assist in tertiary care of patients with coagulopathies and hemoglobinopathies.