Two Atlantic Health System Medical Centers Pioneer Surgical Visualization Technologies for Orthopedic Surgeries

Atlantic Health System’s Morristown Medical Center and Overlook Medical Center recently began pioneering the field of “mixed reality” technology to enhance outcomes in shoulder, hand and upper extremity surgeries. Mixed reality technology provides a virtual hologram that is projected adjacent to the patient during surgery, enabling the surgeon to synthesize online preoperative planning software with real time data analysis during shoulder replacement surgery. This groundbreaking technology enhances the highest level of precision and may in some cases shorten the length of surgery.

Atlantic Health System and NYU Langone Health Announce Partnership on Organ Transplantation

Two of the leading names in health care in the tri-state region, New Jersey–based Atlantic Health System and New York–based NYU Langone Health, are teaming up to give patients greater access to heart and liver transplants and the coordinated, high-quality care needed to stay healthy. The clinical affiliation will partner NYU Langone’s nationally recognized transplant program with the nationally ranked Atlantic Health System Heart Care program located at Morristown Medical Center’s Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute (Morristown, NJ) and the ground-breaking liver services at Overlook Medical Center (Summit, NJ).

The 8th Annual Joseph Calello Melanoma Scholar, Dr. Charles Balch, to Present “The Surgical Management of Melanoma,” a Virtual Lecture, May 6

Atlantic Health System Cancer Care, in partnership with OncLive, invites health care professionals and others interested in the surgical management of melanoma to a virtual lecture by internationally known melanoma expert Charles M. Balch, MD, FACS, FASCO. Dr. Balch is this year’s Joseph Calello Melanoma Scholar. The free lecture and Q & A will be held on May 6, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET.

Ovarian Cancer Screening Study Focuses on Early Detection in Women at Low Risk

Atlantic Health System is enrolling women in a landmark study that uses a simple blood test for the CA-125 protein to screen women who are at low risk for ovarian cancer. The purpose of the clinical trial is to help determine whether this test can catch ovarian cancer early in women who would not normally be screened for it. Atlantic Health System hospitals are the only centers in the New York metro region to participate in the study, and have the third highest enrollment numbers in the nation.

Study Shows Promise for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Who Require New Treatment Options

A new type of immunotherapy treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is being tested by Missak Haigentz, Jr., MD, medical director of hematology and oncology for Atlantic Health System. Early results appear promising in this phase 1/2 clinical trial of ADXS-503 being developed by Advaxis, Inc., a new type of cancer therapy which targets “hotspot” mutations that commonly occur in specific cancer types, both by itself and in combination with immunotherapy Keytruda® (pembrolizumab), which is commonly used to treat this type of lung cancer. Dr. Haigentz and colleagues published early results of this study in conjunction with ASCO 2020, the world’s premier scientific meeting for clinical research in oncology.

Bonni Lee Guerin, MD Honored By American Cancer Society – Northeast Region

Bonni Lee Guerin, MD, hematologist/oncologist and physician researcher at Overlook Medical Center, was honored by the American Cancer Society for her role in advancing breast cancer treatment and prevention. In addition to her forward-looking clinical approach, Dr. Guerin is the principal investigator (PI) of numerous clinical trials exploring new ways to incorporate the latest advances in the management of breast cancer. Dr. Guerin was PI at Atlantic Health System, with the largest number of study participants of any center in the New York-New Jersey metro area, for the landmark TAILORx clinical trial.

Atlantic Health System Cancer Care Enrolling Patients in Innovative Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trials

November is national Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month. This year alone, more than 56,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic tumors are particularly aggressive and hard to treat “due to a mutational profile that makes it resistant to therapies that work better for other tumor types,” explains Angela Alistar, MD, medical director of GI oncology at Morristown Medical Center. Dr. Alistar, an internationally known expert on pancreatic cancer, is now enrolling patients in five clinical trials aimed at pancreatic cancer.