Sylvia C. Kurz, MD, PhD

When I was a medical student, I developed a passion for the intricacies of the brain and central nervous system, as well as the interplay of the immune system with the nervous system. I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to providing care to people with brain tumors and investigating and developing new treatments for these challenging conditions.

I am now a neuro-oncologist at the Brain and Spine Tumor Center at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, where I treat people who have brain tumors and cancer as well as people who have immunotherapy-related side effects or pain resulting from cancer treatment–related nerve damage. I also treat people who have high-grade gliomas, including glioblastoma, astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, meningiomas, spinal cord tumors, and skull base tumors.

I am particulary interested in developing immunotherapies for people with brain tumors. Currently, I conduct translational and clinical research on brain tumors and am a co-investigator on various investigator-initiated, cooperative group, and industry-sponsored trials, including several immunotherapy trials.

In addition, my research is focused on developing clinical trials that investigate the effectiveness of DLL3-targeting agents in people who have progressive IDH-mutant low-grade gliomas. We are also developing novel targeted radionuclide therapies for people with progressive and therapy-refractory meningiomas.