• Press Release

Mount Sinai’s Tisch Cancer Institute Recruits Internationally-Renowned Leader in Lung Cancer Research

Fred Hirsch, MD, PhD, Will Head New Center for Thoracic Oncology

Hirsch
  • New York, NY
  • (March 12, 2019)

Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, an internationally-renowned authority on lung cancer treatment and research, has joined Mount Sinai Health System as Executive Director of the newly-created Center for Thoracic Oncology in The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and the Joe Lowe and Louis Price Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He will also be the Associate Director of Biomarker Discovery for The Tisch Cancer Institute.

Dr. Hirsch’s career in lung cancer research spans more than 25 years and includes translational research, targeted therapies, and early detection of lung cancer. His research has helped identify and validate prognostic markers for lung cancer outcomes and biomarkers for personalized lung cancer therapies that illustrate how these therapies work and who is most likely to benefit from them.

The new Center will give lung cancer patients access to fully-coordinated care that smoothly provides all the services needed—screening, diagnostics, pharmaceutical, surgical, nutrition, psychological and social supportive services—for the best possible outcome. Patient care will be seamless to make treatment as easy as possible.

The Center will expand Mount Sinai’s already-renowned lung cancer screening program to find lung cancer early—a critical time that gives patients the best chance at a cure.  Patients will also have access to the latest research and clinical trials to give them the highest-quality personalized care available.

“We are very proud that Dr. Hirsch has decided to join us to lead our efforts in lung cancer. The new Center is an exciting step forward for coordinating a multidisciplinary approach for lung cancer and builds on a strong foundation already here,” said Ramon Parsons, MD, PhD, Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, Chair of Oncological Sciences and Ward-Coleman Professor in Cancer Research of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Hirsch comes to Mount Sinai from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver, where he was the Associate Director for the University of Colorado Cancer Center and a Professor of Medicine and Pathology. While there, he was the Chief Executive Officer of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the only global organization dedicated solely to the study of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, and led the organization to significant growth.

“Mount Sinai is poised to make major advances in the early diagnosis of lung cancer and to better treat advanced disease, in particular by understanding how to harness the immune system to attack cancer cells,” said William Oh, MD, Chief of Hematology and Medical Oncology and Deputy Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai and the Ezra M. Greenspan, M.D. Professor in Clinical Cancer Care Therapeutics.

Dr. Hirsch, who has published about 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles, has served on the National Cancer Institute’s Steering Committee for Thoracic Malignancies Program and is currently the Co-Chair for Southwest Oncology Group’s Lung Cancer Translational Research Committee.

“Dr. Hirsch’s career in cancer research has advanced the treatment for lung cancer with key developments in early detection, translational research and targeted therapies,” said Steven J. Burakoff, Dean for Cancer Innovation at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, Chief of Pediatric Oncology and Lillian and Henry Stratton Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine. “We are driven to continue to develop more effective therapy for a complex disease that takes so many lives every year.”  

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time — discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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