I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in treating patients with gastrointestinal benign and cancerous disease, with a special focus on liver, bile duct, gallbladder, pancreas, and colorectal cancer. I feel privileged to work in concert with the dynamic team here at Roswell Park composed of members from medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, gastroenterology and radiology. Together, our philosophy is to work as a team to discuss all aspects of a patient’s care to ensure the best possible treatment for every person. My personal role is to provide experienced surgical care to maximize the number of patients who benefit from resecting these tumors and to provide minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic approaches whenever possible to allow faster patient recovery. I pride myself in providing each patient with the utmost attention to detail and giving care in a speedy, efficient way to ease anxiety and optimize outcomes.
In addition to caring for patients, I conduct laboratory and translational research within the Center for Immunotherapy and have been tasked with the development of immunotherapies for the treatment of pancreas, liver, and bile duct cancers. Even when these cancers are able to be surgically removed, there is often disease that has spread that leads to the cancer coming back. T cells are highly specialized immune cells that protect us from infections and cancers. I specialize in engineering T cells to target and kill cancers. T cell immunotherapy can be especially effective since it is a ‘living drug’ that can circulate throughout our bodies and treat any cancer that has already spread. My ultimate goal then is to combine surgery with immunotherapy to both remove the tumor and treat any disease that has already spread to prevent cancer from coming back to increase cancer survivors. I am excited to be at Roswell Park, an ideal place to combine my passions for taking care of cancer patients and developing effective immune therapies.
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