I am currently the Physician-in-Chief, Oncology Service Line at the Sylvester Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami Health System where I oversee cancer related clinical care, clinical research, faculty mentorship, Advanced Practice Providers as well as the Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee.
My academic career and research focus on improving the outcome of patients with poor risk Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). This effort has been conducted along two tracks: 1) optimizing therapy for patients with relapsed and refractory disease, including high dose therapy (HDT) and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), CART approaches and studying new agents that can be incorporated into salvage therapy, and 2) developing risk-adapted strategies to optimize the treatment of newly diagnosed DLBCL and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma by using what we have learned in the relapsed and refractory setting.
This research has led to changes in standard of care that include the use of the most widely used salvage program ICE chemotherapy, PET-adapted therapies, maintenance therapy post-ASCT, utility of clinical and molecular-derived prognostic models in the relapsed and refractory setting, and the incorporation of novel immune-based approaches in the second-line setting.
Two agents were approved during these clinical investigations: Brentuximab Vedotin for maintenance therapy post-ASCT for Hodgkin lymphoma and Pembrolizumab for chronic therapy of poor risk Hodgkin lymphoma. In addition, the program Pembrolizumab, gemcitabine, vinorelbine and liposomal doxorubicin for salvage of HL patients will likely be the new standard of care for first relapse.
Prior to coming to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, I practiced for 26 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where I directed the division of Hematologic Oncology and had an endowed chair in lymphoma research. I have mentored 24 clinical researchers who care for patients with lymphoma and leukemia and are currently practicing at various institutions in the U.S.
