NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center has appointed new leadership to its Clinical Trials Office and joined a national clinical trials network that enhances its ability to offer promising early-stage clinical trials to people with cancer.

Bhavana Pothuri, MD, professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of gynecologic oncology clinical trials at Perlmutter Cancer Center, was named medical director of the Clinical Trials Office on July 18, 2022.

Kristen Spencer, DO, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, was named director of Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Phase 1 Developmental Therapeutics Program on June 1, 2022.

On July 15, 2022, Perlmutter Cancer Center joined the National Cancer Institute–Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) as part of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Lead Academic Organization. Janice Mehnert, MD, professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and associate director for clinical research at Perlmutter Cancer Center, will serve as site principal investigator.

Joining the ETCTN exemplifies the advancement of Perlmutter Cancer Center’s clinical trial capabilities, as there are only 12 Lead Academic Organizations nationwide. The focus of the network is to support the development and national execution of early-stage clinical trials that emerge from novel hypotheses. The network also provides support and infrastructure to investigators to conduct studies that incorporate biomarker development and molecular characterization of biospecimens through a national network. Faculty at Perlmutter Cancer Center will now have access to the full menu of ETCTN trials, along with increased opportunities to design investigator-initiated studies with CTEP.

Dr. Spencer serves as national principal investigator for CTEP protocol 10276 (A Phase 1/2 Study of M3814 and Avelumab in Combination with Hypofractionated Radiation in Patients with Advanced/Metastatic Solid Tumors and Hepatobiliary Malignancies). Catherine S. Diefenbach, MD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and director of the Clinical Lymphoma Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center, serves as principal investigator for CTEP protocol 10508 (A Phase 1 Study of Nivolumab in Combination with ASTX727 in B-Cell lymphoma [NHL or HL] with an Expansion Cohort in Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma).