Dr. Landgren, who was chief of myeloma service for the past six years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, one of the top two cancer centers in the U.S., will also lead the myeloma clinical and research team at Sylvester.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Landgren as a colleague. He is a world leader with great vision and expertise,” said Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., director of Sylvester. “He will help us develop effective new treatments and new lines of research.”
The Experimental Therapeutics Program will bring together multidisciplinary teams of clinicians and scientists throughout Sylvester to advance research into novel therapies and to accelerate discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside. The Experimental Therapeutics Program will support early laboratory discoveries, refinement of preclinical models, and early-stage and first-in-human clinical trials – all with the overall goal to move therapeutic advances forward and to facilitate FDA approvals so patients will have access to newer and better therapies.
“The Experimental Therapeutics Program will also play a key role for continued and expanded scientific medical education, mentoring, and culture of intellectual synergism and collaboration. It will create a unique research environment that will enhance our abilities to pursue drug development. We will support all promising discoveries made in our laboratories and clinics, with the goal to reach its full potential for benefiting people with cancer” said Dr. Landgren.
His area of focus is the multiple myeloma treatment field, which has undergone several changes over the past 10-20 years. The average overall survival has increased from 1-3 years to 10-20 years.
“Yet, we do not have an established curative therapy for multiple myeloma. I think advanced monitoring with minimal residual disease (MRD) testing, targeted imaging, and cutting-edge molecular profiling of residual disease post-therapy will drive the field forward in the coming few years. With better identification of residual disease as well as detection of early recurrences, we will improve remission-free follow-up for our patients” Dr. Landgren explained.
Telemedicine consultations are open to patients across the U.S. as well as internationally. Patients are able to receive therapy at Sylvester and there is collaboration with other hematologists and oncologists who treat patients in other cities and countries.