New York Round Table - May 5, 2018

Ruben Niesvizky, MD is Director of the Multiple Myeloma Center and the Director of Oncology Operations at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. He is also Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York, and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Niesvizky received his medical degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and completed a residency in internal medicine and a research fellowship in cell biology/granulomonopoiesis at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City. Dr. Niesvizky was awarded a clinical hematology fellowship at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, where he was named Chief Fellow. He was also awarded a hematology/oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he was assistant attending physician for 6 years. Dr. Niesvizky is fluent in written and spoken Spanish, Hebrew and English. Dr. Niesvizky’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Cancer, Leukemia and Lymphoma, and Seminars in Oncology. He has been the director of the clinical core of the Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society granted in 2000 and is the recipient of various grants and awards from the National Cancer Institute, including a K23 award and 3 translational research grants for the development of new drugs. He is the recipient of the 2007 Investigator Award of the Michael Wolk Heart Foundation. A frequent lecturer, Dr Niesvizky regularly presents at annual meetings of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, of which he is also a member. He is an active participant in clinical trials of promising new drugs and medical procedures for the treatment of myeloma, lymphoma, and related hematologic disorders. He is a member of several professional associations, including the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine and the Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Amyloidosis Service at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Her translational research focuses on identifying novel targets for the treatment of myeloma, myeloma bone disease, and AL amyloidosis. Dr. Lentzsch is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Myeloma Steering Committee, the SWOG Myeloma Working Group, co-chairs the International Myeloma Society’s Career Development Committee, and serves as a grant reviewer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Stand Up 2 Cancer (SU2C) in collaboration with the American Association for Cancer Research. She will begin a four-year term in 2021 on the American Society of Hematology’s Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Neoplasia and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Prior to joining Columbia University, Dr. Lentzsch served as Clinical Director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). She served a research fellowship to study the mechanism of action of thalidomide and its derivatives in multiple myeloma under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Anderson at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She completed a fellowship and residency at the Humboldt University/Charité Berlin, Germany, where she earned her MD.

Jens Hillengass, MD, PhD, is Professor of Oncology and Chief of the Myeloma and Amyloidosis Service at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY. Prior to joining Roswell, he was the deputy of the section multiple myeloma of the University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany, the leader of its autologous stem cell transplantation program, and head of the hemato-oncological imaging research group at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). He completed his medical degree at Heidelberg University, where he later completed residency and fellowship in the department of hematology, oncology, and rheumatology. Dr Hillengass received a Gerok scholarship to study radiology at the German Cancer Research Center. Additionally, he completed a research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Hillengass is member of the Black Swan Research Initiative of the International Myeloma Foundation and the International Myeloma Working Group where he co-chairs the bone and imaging group.