BiliaryTractCancer near Elmhurst, NY

Biography: Dr. Laura S. Munoz Arcos is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Assistant Attending Physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.Dr. Munoz Arcos earned her medical degree from Universidad del Valle in Colombia, her home country. She then completed an internal medicine residency at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY, followed by a Hematology and Oncology fellowship at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where she served as Chief Fellow in her final year. During her fellowship, Dr. Munoz Arcos gained extensive clinical experience in treating all types of breast cancer while conducting translational research on liquid biopsy in breast cancer at Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli's laboratory. Her research focuses on identifying predictors of response to therapy in hormone receptor-sensitive metastatic breast cancer. In recognition of her work, she received the 2023 Conquer Cancer American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award, a prestigious honor granted to only 100 recipients annually. Following the completion of her fellowship, Dr. Munoz Arcos joined the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology as a faculty member, where she is focused on the treatment of breast cancer.

Biography: Dr. Vered Stearns completed the equivalent of a B.S. degree at the Tel Aviv University, Sackler Faculty of Medicine in 1989. After relocating to the United States, Dr. Stearns transferred to and graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School with a medical degree (M.D.) in 1992. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Georgetown University where she developed an interest in translational breast cancer research and spent two additional years as a research fellow. Dr. Stearns was a faculty member at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Georgetown University, and at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan before joining the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in 2002. She remained at Johns Hopkins and served in a variety of roles, including co-Director of the Breast Cancer Program, co-Director of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Program, Director, Women's Malignancies Disease Group and inaugural Medical Director of the Under Armour Breast Health Innovation Center, until being recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in 2023. At Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Stearns is Director of Translational Breast Cancer Research at the Department of Medicine, and Associate Director for Clinical Services at the Meyer Cancer Center. Her role in the Meyer Cancer Center will allow her to develop programs and to mentor team members across diseases throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.Dr. Stearns's long-term research goal is to improve current therapies by individualizing strategies for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer. The main focus of Dr. Stearns's research includes the utilization of biomarkers to predict response to standard regimens used to treat and prevent breast cancer, and to introduce new interventions. Dr. Stearns and colleagues from the Consortium On Breast Cancer Pharamcogenomics (COBRA) Group were the first to evaluate the role of genetic variants in candidate genes such as CYP2D6 in tamoxifen metabolism, safety, and efficacy. This work has been extended to evaluate the role of genetic variants in aromatase inhibitor associated outcomes. She has also conducted clinical investigations of epigenetic modifying agents across the breast cancer continuum. She is evaluating whether histone deacetylase inhibitors enhance response to immunotherapy. Having demonstrated that methylation markers predict breast cancer risk, she is evaluating whether natural compounds can reverse these modifications.Dr. Stearns has received numerous grants and awards to fund her innovative research. She was a recipient of early career awards including a Clinical Research Training Grant from the American Cancer Society, and was one of the first five recipients of the prestigious Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award. Subsequently she was the inaugural recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Advanced Clinical Research Award.She served as a Board Member of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) for the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and was elected in 2020 as Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). Her work has already had a positive impact on the lives of many women, and in 2017, Dr. Stearns was selected by Forbes as one of 27 top breast cancer oncologists in the United States. Dr. Stearns is Vice Chair of the NRG Translational Science Committee, and Co-Chair of the NRG Breast?Translational?Working Group. In these roles, she works closely with Group members as they investigate correlative biomarkers obtained through breast cancer trials.

Biography: Manuel Hidalgo, M.D., Ph.D., is currently the Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Hidalgo received his M.D. from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain in 1992, and Ph.D. from University Autonoma of Madrid in 1997. He trained in medicine and medical oncology at Hospital "12 de Octubre" in Madrid and at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. He also completed a fellowship program in anticancer drug development at the Institute of Drug Development in San Antonio. Prior to this position, he served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. In 2001, Dr. Hidalgo relocated to Johns Hopkins University to serve as Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he also held the title of Associate Professor of Oncology. Dr. Hidalgo became Director of the Clinical Research Program at the Spanish National Cancer Center in 2009 and Vice Director of Translational Research in 2011. In 2015, he became the Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology and Director of the Rosenberg Clinical Cancer Center at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Dr. Hidalgo also served as the Theodore W. and Evelyn G. Berenson Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His main focus of research has been new drug development in pancreatic cancer. His group popularized the use of Avatar mouse models for cancer research and recently contributed to the development and Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval of nab-paclitaxel for pancreatic cancer treatment. Dr. Hidalgo's current research focuses on strategies for personalized medicine and immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer. Dr. Hidalgo also serves on the Board of Directors for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

Care Philosophy: I believe that by spending the time and energy to understand every patient, we have a bounty of opportunities to halt disease progression and even reverse it, and look forward to caring for you or your loved one.