Experts Available for Comment during Blood Cancer Awareness Month

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s leading cancer center and only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center together with RWJBarnabas Health, is home to a team of the nation’s most experienced physicians with expertise in routine, rare and complex hematologic malignancies, treating patients with blood cancers and blood disorders with clinical trials, immunotherapy, and other cellular therapies, including CAR T-cell therapy.  

The Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute also offers the full spectrum of therapeutic procedures and advanced treatment, including stem cell transplantation for children, adolescents and young adults through our Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies Program. The program is one of the only programs in the state of New Jersey that utilizes stem cell transplants in the treatment of benign diseases in children such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, immune system disorders, bone marrow failure disorders and inherited metabolic disorders.

Experts in Adult Blood Cancers available for comment: 

Matthew Matasar, MD, MS, is chief of Blood Disorders at Rutgers Cancer Institute, overseeing the sections of Hematologic Malignancies; Transplant and Cell Therapy; and Benign Hematology. Dr. Matasar conducts clinical research to develop more effective and less toxic treatments and studies how to best manage treatment impact on lymphoma patients throughout their cancer journey.  His clinical expertise includes lymphomas (both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), clinical trials and cancer survivorship. He can discuss the latest treatment advances for hematologic malignancies, including the role of immunotherapy.

Ira Braunschweig, MD, is chief, Section of Transplant and Cell Therapy at Rutgers Cancer Institute, chief of the Transplant and Cell Therapy Service of the RWJBarnabas Health Oncology Service Line, and director for Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas facility.  Dr. Braunschweig was the principal investigator for the Zuma-1 study, which is the study that established axi-cel as a new standard for patients with relapsed and refractory large cell lymphoma. His clinical expertise includes stem cell transplantation, CAR T-cell therapy, acute leukemias, aggressive lymphomas and multiple myeloma.

Andrew M. Evens, DO, MBA, MSc, is associate director for Clinical Services at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and system director of medical oncology, RWJBarnabas Health and Associate Vice Chancellor for Clinical Innovation and Data Analytics, within Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Evens has been the principal investigator of more than 100 cancer clinical trials that have included phase I, II, and III studies, many of which have been “investigator-initiated” studies examining new and novel targeted agents. This has resulted in 350+ research abstract presentations at national and international cancer symposiums, 200+ manuscripts in peer-reviewed publications, and 40+ book chapters. His clinical expertise and research interests are concentrated in the field of lymphoid malignancies.

Joanna M. Rhodes, MD, MSCE, is director of the Lymphoma Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute and system leader of Lymphoma at RWJBarnabas Health. Her research is focused on bringing new therapies, particularly novel targeted agents and immune-based therapies to patients with CLL and lymphomas. As treatment paradigms have changed, her research has also focused on understanding the toxicities of these novel therapies, including best management strategies, particularly in older patients or in patients who have other chronic medical conditions. Her clinical expertise includes chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, lymphoma survivorship, novel therapies, clinical trials and toxicity management strategies.  

Adrienne Phillips, MD, MPH, is director of Cell Therapy and Bone Marrow Transplantation Northern Regions at RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute. Her expertise is in treating a rare, but very fast-growing and aggressive cancer caused by a virus called the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 or HTLV-1. This cancer, HTLV-Related Adult T-Cell Leukemia Lymphoma (ATLL), disproportionally impacts Latino and Caribbean Americans, including immigrants and people whose families have come to the United States from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti.

Neil Palmisiano, MD, MS, is the deputy director of Phase I Therapeutics for Hematologic Malignancies and co-medical director of the Office of Human Research Services at Rutgers Cancer Institute; and system leader for Leukemia, RWJBarnabas Health.  Dr. Palmisiano has led a robust portfolio of clinical research in hematologic malignancies, with a focus on early phase drug development in leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. His clinical expertise includes acute leukemias and myelodysplastic syndrome.

Experts in Pediatric Blood Cancers for Comment:

Niketa C. Shah, MD, is chief of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at Rutgers Cancer Institute. Dr. Shah began her medical career in India. Dr. Shah successfully led, stabilized, and expanded the pediatric BMT program at Yale, including the expansion of different graft sources, the addition of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR T)-cell therapy, and the establishment of a sickle cell disease transplant program. Her clinical expertise includes pediatric cancers, bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy, stem cell transplantation, CAR T-cell therapy, sickle cell disease, bone marrow failure, graft versus host disease and clinical research.

Peter Cole, MD, is chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Rutgers Cancer Institute. Dr. Cole’s research efforts remain focused on developing new treatments to improve the lives of children and adolescents with blood disorders and cancer. His laboratory, funded by the National Institutes of Health, investigates why some patients suffer side effects of cancer treatment, while others do not. He has clinical expertise in pediatric cancer and has been actively involved on a global level in designing and conducting clinical trials for children diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma.  

All are faculty members at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.