NYU Langone Health's Perlmutter Cancer Center announces the arrival of acclaimed cancer leaders Anirban Maitra, MD, and Manuel Hidalgo, MD, as co-directors of a new Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Center. This marks a milestone in its mission to develop a world-leading GI cancer program with a tightly integrated research and clinical platform focused on translating research into new treatments for GI cancer patients.
Dr. Maitra is a world-renowned physician-scientist whose work has widely influenced the field of pancreatic cancer research, from early detection and biomarker development to tumor microenvironment and early cancer interception strategies. He is also a leading gastrointestinal and pancreatic pathologist, and at NYU Langone, he will be working with the Department of Pathology to develop programs in spatial biology, molecular diagnostics, and tissue-based analytics. At Perlmutter Cancer Center, Dr. Maitra will serve as both co-director of the GI Cancer Center and associate director of translational research, where he will lead efforts to drive discovery from the lab to the clinic across multiple disease areas.
"We are positioned well at Perlmutter Cancer Center to create a truly world-class GI Cancer Center," said Dr. Maitra. "The integrated nature of this institution gives us so much opportunity to turn what we do at the lab bench into tangible treatments, developing both our understanding of these cancers, and our ability to improve outcomes for our patients."
Dr. Hidalgo is a highly respected translational researcher and clinical oncologist, having done internationally recognized work in anticancer drug development. He has led early clinical development of more than 50 novel agents that have changed the standard of care for patients with advanced cancers. Having pioneered the use of patient-derived xenografts, which use a sample of a patient's tumor to develop the best course of treatment, Dr. Hidalgo's work bridges laboratory discoveries with clinical application. At Perlmutter Cancer Center, he will focus on building robust infrastructure for therapeutic development, investigator-initiated trials, and biomarker-driven studies.
"I am honored to join Perlmutter Cancer Center and help lead the development of this ambitious GI Cancer Center alongside Dr. Maitra," said Dr. Hidalgo. "The vision behind this initiative is to facilitate collaboration between existing expertise at NYU Langone Health to address the needs of our community of patients."
Dr. Maitra and Dr. Hidalgo have collaborated with each other in the past to develop a successful pancreatic cancer center earlier in their careers. We are tremendously excited that their reunion at NYU Langone will see them building a GI Cancer Center that partners with our multidisciplinary teams of incredible surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, gastroenterologists, and researchers to accelerate scientific discovery into tangible treatments for our patients."
John P. Leonard, MD, chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Blood Cancers at Perlmutter Cancer Center
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