Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Craig H. Moskowitz Saves Lives With New Therapies For Lymphoma

One of the world’s leading lymphoma experts, Craig H. Moskowitz, M.D., joined Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth – University of Miami Health System, last year after more than 25 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He has devoted his entire career to advancing the clinical research and treatment of lymphoma and has developed targeted therapies that are proving highly effective and becoming the standard of care worldwide. 

Each year, more than 80,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with some form of lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymph system and the most common of all blood-related cancers. There are two main types of lymphoma – Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin – with the latter making up roughly 80 percent of all lymphomas. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, which develops from B cells in the lymphatic system, is the most common malignant lymphoma.

Dr. Moskowitz, physician-in-chief at Sylvester, has had two drugs – brentuximab vedotin and pembrolizumab – approved for the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma. He is currently leading a Phase 1 clinical trial that employs an innovative drug combination for patients with advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma when standard treatments have failed. 

One of his patients at Sylvester is the first in the world to be treated with this new investigational combination therapy, which combines an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that selectively kills non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells with durvalumab, an immunotherapy drug. Dr. Moskowitz says the combination therapy is more effective than either drug alone. 

“The ADC drug has been given by itself to more than 100 lymphoma patients, and the response rate is greater than 40 percent. The hope is that these two therapies together will provide a one-two punch against lymphoma, killing cancer cells directly and motivating the immune system to destroy even more.”

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, A Part Of UHealth—University Of Miami Health System Location: 1475 N.W. 12th Ave., Miami, FL 33136, 305-243-5302; sylvester.org

Specialties: Hematology And Lymphoma

Education and Certifications: Board Certified, Internal Medicine; Board Certified, Medical Oncology; Board Certified, Medical Hematology; Wayne State University School of Medicine Detroit, MI

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