Internationally recognized GI cancer physician-scientist Anirban Maitra, MD, has joined NYU Langone Health as co-director of the newly established Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Center and as associate director of translational research at Perlmutter Cancer Center. Partnering with co-director Manuel Hidalgo Medina, MD, Dr. Maitra will lead multidisciplinary initiatives across multiple GI disease areas to advance innovative cancer care and research.

Here, Dr. Maitra discusses the mission of the GI Cancer Center and his commitment to improving care for some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers.

Physician Focus: You bring decades of research experience to NYU Langone. Can you share a bit about your expertise and what you are most proud to have accomplished in your previous roles?

Dr. Maitra: I have dedicated 25 years to pancreas cancer research, first at Johns Hopkins University and then at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Throughout this time, I’ve led a lab with continuous funding from the National Cancer Institute, as well as support from foundations such as Stand Up to Cancer and Break Through Cancer.

For the past 12 years, I co-led MD Anderson’s Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot, which enabled team science in the context of novel cancer therapies and biomarkers for early cancer detection. I am proud of these translational, patient-focused initiatives, which have widely influenced the field of pancreatic cancer research, including the development of KRAS inhibitors.

GI cancers contribute to the single largest slice of cancer deaths in the U.S., and the incidence of early onset colorectal, pancreatic, and liver cancer is rising. There’s a great need to understand why and what we can do about it.

Physician Focus: What drew you to NYU Langone and this leadership role?

Dr. Maitra: I am thrilled to join NYU Langone, which has a tremendous footprint in the community and serves diverse populations across the five boroughs and beyond.

“Taking care of patients with cancer is a major part of what we do, but there’s a much larger slice of the population that is at risk for cancer. What can we do for those patients?”

Anirban Maitra, MD

Because NYU Langone’s health system is comprehensive and tightly integrated, working here presents a unique opportunity to engage patients early in their disease course, including those at risk for GI cancers due to polyps, pancreatic cysts, pancreatitis, Barrett’s esophagus, or liver disease. Taking care of patients with established cancer is a major part of what we do as a cancer center, but there’s a much larger slice of the population that is at risk for cancer. What can we do for those patients? Prevention and early detection are a big part of what I’m interested in.

I’m also excited to collaborate with Dr. Hidalgo again. For almost a decade, we worked together at Johns Hopkins on several initiatives, including some of the early drug approvals for pancreatic cancer and many novel therapies. We have a very strong working relationship, and it was a dream come true when we both agreed to co-lead this center together.

Physician Focus: What are your top goals as co-director of the GI Cancer Center and associate director of translational research?

Dr. Maitra: We will be developing a program that connects the GI cancer specialists and positions Perlmutter Cancer Center as a world-class GI cancer center.

Our major goal is to partner with several of the exceptional existing programs here at NYU Langone, including the vibrant Pancreatic Disease Program co-led by Tamas A. Gonda, MD, Paul E. Oberstein, MD, and Christopher Wolfgang, MD, PhD, the Liver Cancer Program led by Augusto Villanueva Rodriguez, MD, PhD, and the Colorectal Cancer Program led by Bashar A. Safar, MD. We’re planning to recruit additional faculty and vastly increase our portfolio of clinical trials.

Much of my research at MD Anderson, which I will continue here, focuses on collaborating with investigators to develop new biomarkers and implementing them in high-risk cohorts, including patients with pancreatic cystic lesions and others across GI cancers.

“We want to detect GI cancers early, in preinvasive stages, and use novel approaches like vaccines to ‘intercept’ or stop them from progressing.”

Cancer interception, a football analogy coined by Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, is a big area of interest. We want to detect GI cancers early, in preinvasive stages, and use novel approaches like vaccines to “intercept” or stop them from progressing.

Physician Focus: What’s one of the greatest challenges in the GI cancer field and how can Perlmutter Cancer Center and your work address it?

Dr. Maitra: For nearly 40 years, we haven’t had drugs that target KRAS mutations, which account for over 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and about 40 percent of colorectal cancers. Finally, we do, and NYU Langone has a growing portfolio of clinical trials focused on advancing these agents and other novel modalities, including cell therapy, antibody-based therapies, and other new targeted approaches. The next challenge is to learn from every patient—to understand why some respond to these therapies and, most importantly, why others don’t.

Looking ahead, it would be exciting if we could use some of these therapies in the prevention setting. I’m looking forward to launching interception trials, which is a paradigm shift in how we think about treating GI cancers.