Medical Oncology News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

Bone marrow transplant expert Neal Flomenberg, M.D., has been named the new chair of the Department of Medical Oncology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia.

Dr. Flomenberg, who is also Clinical Deputy Director at the Kimmel Cancer Center and professor of Medical Oncology and Microbiology and Immunology at Jefferson Medical College, has been interim chair since2006. Prior to that, he was director of the Division of Medical Oncology from 2003 to 2006, and acting director from 2001 to 2003. He has beendirector of the Hematologic Malignancies and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Program at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and the Kimmel Cancer Center since coming to Jefferson in 1994.

“Jefferson is indeed fortunate to continue to have Neal Flomenberg’s experience and leadership in the Department of Medical Oncology,” says Michael J. Vergare, M.D. Interim Dean of Jefferson Medical College and chair of Psychiatry.

“Neal Flomenberg’s superb skills as both clinician and scientist make him the ideal choice to lead the department of Medical Oncology,” says Kimmel Cancer Center director and Vice President for Oncology Services at Jefferson Hospital, Richard Pestell, M.D., Ph.D. “His record of achievement is impressive.”

An accomplished researcher whose work has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Flomenberg’s research interests center on ways to make allogeneic transplants (using a donor, rather than the patient’s own stem cells) safer. In addition, he is also working to try to prevent deadly graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD), the bane of marrow and peripheral blood progenitor cell transplants, and hopes to find ways to increase immune system recovery after allogeneic transplant. These efforts have opened up opportunities for successful transplantation of patients lacking a well matched donor.

Prior to coming to Jefferson, Dr. Flomenberg was professor of medicine and microbiology from 1991 to 1994 at the Medical College of Wisconsin and associate professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College from 1990 to 1991. He was assistant attending physician at Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York from 1982 to 1990. He was a research fellow and research associate, respectively, from 1980 to 1981 and from 1981 to 1984 at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York. He was clinical assistant physician at Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases and an instructor in medicine at Cornell University Medical College from 1981 to 1982.

A recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, Dr. Flomenberg received the prestigious Service to Mankind Award from the regional Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2006 and in 2003, he was named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man of theYear for Eastern Pennsylvania. In 2006, he was also recognized as that year’s outstanding alumnus by the Pennsylvania State University Eberly College of Science. He has published widely in such journals as Blood and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is a member of such organizations as the American Society for Hematology, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Transplantation Society, and the Federation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy. He received the Gratz Award from Jefferson for research efforts most likely to influence clinical practice.

Dr. Flomenberg received a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University in 1974, and earned a doctor of medicine degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1976 through a joint Jefferson-Penn State accelerated medical degree program.