Specialty	Urology
Clinical Interests	Prostate Cancer
	Bladder Cancer
	Kidney Cancer
Gender	Male
E-mail	simon.hall@mssm.edu
Education and Training	MD, Columbia Univ. Col. of Phy. & Surg.
	Residency, Urology, Boston University Medical Center
	Residency, Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital
	Fellowship, Uro-Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine
Awards	2009 Best Doctors New York Magazine

Dr. Hall is Director of the Barbara and Maurice Deane Prostate Health and Research Center.

My clinical interests are primarily urologic oncology, specifically the diagnosis, evaluation and treatment of prostate cancer, renal cell cancer and urothelial (transitional cell) cancer effecting the kidneys and bladder. In the area of prostate cancer I am especially interested in the use of multimodal therapy for the treatment of high risk cancer and of noel therapies in the treatment of disease recurrence  following definitive treatment. In the area of urothelial cancers of the kidney and renal cell carcinomas I am interesed in further development of the use of laparoscopy and other minimally invasive treatment such as percutaneous cryotherapy or the treatment of selected renal lesions. In the area of bladder cancer I am interested in the use of robotics to decrease the morbidity by removing the bladder and in reconstructive techniques to remake a new bladder out of intestine so that an individual patient's quality of life after surgery will be as close to that pre-surgery.  

In The News

Dr. Hall discusses his work with prostate cancer screenings in The Daily News feature The Daily Check Up. View the PDF.

Education and Training	MD, Columbia Univ. Col. of Phy. & Surg.
	Residency, Urology, Boston University Medical Center
	Residency, Surgery, Mount Sinai Hospital
	Fellowship, Uro-Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine
Board Certification	Urology

Specialty	Urology
Clinical Interests	Prostate Cancer
	Bladder Cancer
	Kidney Cancer
Board Certification	Urology

For the most part, my research interests both clinically and in the laboratory have focused on prostate cancer. My laboratory in the Department of Cell and Gene Medicine is focused on the development of novel therapies for cancer. A major initiative is the use of novel viruses such as VSV (vesicular stomatitis virus) to target and preferentially eliminate prostate and bladder cancer cells while sparing normal cells as a form of therapy for locally advanced or recurrent prostate cancer. We are also performing a Phase I clinical trial using an adenovirus expressing Interleukin 12 in patients with locally advanced recurrent cancer in an effort to stimulate immune responses against not just local cancer but microscopically present metastatic diseases. Our second initiative is focused on a novel co-chaperone called CHIP in androgen receptor expressing hormone refractory prostate cancer cells results in cell death while causing only growth inhibition of hormone sensitive cells. We are exploring the hypothesis that such manipulation may be anovel therapeutic approach for perhaps preventing and/or treating hormone refractory prostate cancer.

Clinically, as Director of the Deane Prostate Health and Research Center I am most interested in expanding multi-departmental and multidisciplinary research approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with prostate cancer through a variety of clinical efforts and research clinical trials. I have a personal interest in prostate cancer patients at opposite ends of the clinical patients with a high likelihood  of having clinically insignificant prostate cancer. These patients would be excellent candidates for expectant management, an active program whereby patients are closely followed by physical exam, PSA levels and confirmatory/surveillance biopsies so overtime patients with higher volume or grade disease or progressive disease can opt for definitive treatment without risking disease failure while the remainder will remain on a no treatment scheme. For patients with more advanced and recurrent diseases we have designed a variety of escalating choices for treatment through industry sponsored clinical trials such as Dendritic cell vaccines and our own in-house clinical trials.

Hall SJ, Chen S, Woo SL. The Promise and Reality of Cancer Gene Therapy. Am J Hum Genetics 1997; 61: 785-789.

Hall SJ, Sanford MA, Atkinson G, Chen SH. Induction of Potent Anti-Tumor Natural Killer Cell Activity by HSV-tk and Ganciclovir Therapy in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Prostate Cancer. Cancer Res 1998; 58: 3221-3225.

Atkinson G, Hall SJ. Pro-Drug Activation Gene Therapy and External Beam Irradiation in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer. Urology 1999; 54: 1098-1104.

Anello R, Cohen S, Atkinson G, Hall SJ. Adenovirus-Mediated Cystosine Deaminase Gene Transduction Followed by 5-Fluorocytosine Therapy Sensitizes Mouse Prostate Cancer Cells to Irradiation. J Urol 2000; 164: 2173-2177.

Hassen W, Sanford MA, Woo SL, Chen SH, Hall SJ. Prospects For HSV-tk and Cytokine Gene Transduction as Immunomodulatory Gene Therapy for Prostate Cancer. World J Urol 2000; 18: 130-135.

Hall SJ, Bar-Chama N, Ta S, Gordon JW. . Direct Exposure of Mouse Spermatogenic Cells to High Doses of Adenovirus Gene Therapy Does Not Result in Germ Cell Transduction. Hum Gene Ter 2000; 11: 1705-1712.

Sanford MA, Yan Y, Canfield SE, Hassen W, Atkinson G, Chen SH, Hall SJ. Independent Contributions of Gr-1+Leukocytes and Fas/FasL Interactions to Induce Apoptosis Following IL-12 Gene Therapy in a Mouse Model of Prostate Cancer. Hum Gene Ther 2001; 12: 1485-1498.

Hall SJ, Canfield SE, Yan Y, Hassen W, Chen SH. A Novel Bystander Effect Involving Tumor Cell Derived Fas and FasL Interactions Following Ad.HSV-tk and Ad.mIL-12 Gene Therapies in Experimental Prostate Cancer. Gene Ther 2002; 9: 511-517.