Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Anirban Maitra, MD, Director of Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health

Transcript

Anirban Maitra, MD, Director of Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - Hello, and thank you so much for tuning
• 0:54
  - into the Becker's Oncology Leadership podcast.
• 0:57
  - I'm Elizabeth Gregerson, a reporter here at Becker's.
• 1:01
  - And today, I am talking to doctor Anirban
• 1:04
  - Maitra.
• 1:05
  - Doctor Maitra is the director of the Perlmutter
• 1:08
  - Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health. Doctor Maitra,
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  - thank you so much for taking the time
• 1:13
  - to speak with me today.
• 1:15
  - It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
• 1:17
  - Yeah. And before I dive into our conversation,
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  - I'd love if you could just share a
• 1:21
  - bit about your background and your role at
• 1:23
  - NYU Langone
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  - for our podcast audience.
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  - Of course.
• 1:28
  - So I arrived at NYU Langone exactly a
• 1:31
  - year ago.
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  - Actually, 09/01/2025
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  - was my first day.
• 1:38
  - Although I was initially in a different role,
• 1:40
  - I was the director of the GI Cancer
• 1:42
  - Center. That's the role I was recruited in.
• 1:44
  - And then on February first of this year,
• 1:47
  - I became the cancer center director. I've been
• 1:50
  - a pancreatic cancer researcher for a quarter century.
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  - I was, originally at Johns Hopkins
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  - University in Baltimore, then I was recruited to
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  - MD Anderson Cancer Center
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  - in Houston, Texas before being recruited to NYU
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  - by then cancer center director and now dean
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  - of NYU Langone, doctor Alec Kimmelman.
• 2:11
  - So it's it's wonderful to be here and
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  - and to be stepping into this role.
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  - Perfect. I really appreciate you taking the time
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  - out of your day to speak with me.
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  - Kind of zooming in really quickly to get
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  - us started,
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  - what would you say is your biggest priority
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  - right now at the cancer center?
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  - Yeah. Absolutely.
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  - I wish there was one priority, but it's
• 2:35
  - hard to hard to have one single priority
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  - when you are working at a cancer center
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  - that is growing and expanding,
• 2:43
  - and especially at such an exciting time in
• 2:46
  - oncology.
• 2:47
  - Just yesterday, we had the approval come through
• 2:50
  - for,
• 2:52
  - a really amazing drug called Daraxone Rassib for
• 2:55
  - metastatic pancreas cancer that has nearly doubled survival.
• 2:59
  - And we're seeing examples like that happen everywhere.
• 3:01
  - We also had the a successful phase three
• 3:04
  - of a melanoma vaccine. Again,
• 3:07
  - a vaccine that NYU had a pivotal role
• 3:10
  - in earlier phase trials.
• 3:12
  - And so with everything going on, it's hard
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  - for me to have just one priority, but
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  - but but I I will say the top
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  - three priorities would be number one. We really
• 3:21
  - wanna expand our clinical trial footprint across the
• 3:24
  - entire network. NYU is not just Manhattan.
• 3:27
  - We now have,
• 3:28
  - a presence in Staten Island. We are rapidly
• 3:31
  - expanding in Long Island,
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  - especially Eastern Long Island. We just,
• 3:36
  - opened up a facility,
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  - in Patchogue.
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  - And so over this entire geographic area, we
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  - are expanding, and and the goal of that
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  - expansion is to offer clinical trials closer to
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  - home for our patients so they don't have
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  - to drive into the city to get access
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  - to the same trials.
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  - The other
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  - priority for me is expanding our our our,
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  - research programs, especially in GI cancers, but also,
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  - in in brain and spine,
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  - in in in lung cancer,
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  - all the major cancer types really, as well
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  - as expanding the footprint of our center for
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  - molecular oncology,
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  - which is providing,
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  - serial monitoring
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  - for patients through liquid biopsies. This is a
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  - high priority area for me. And and, of
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  - course, in all of these areas, we are
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  - planning to recruit additional faculty,
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  - and and thereby increase our portfolio of clinical
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  - trials. And finally, I will say the other
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  - priority as somebody who's worked in early detection
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  - and and and prevention for for many years,
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  - one of the reasons I moved to NYU
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  - from a freestanding
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  - cancer center is our ability to reach
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  - populations that
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  - don't have cancer but may be at risk
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  - for cancer. So really expanding our screening and
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  - early detection efforts is the other priority for
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  - me.
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  - Thank you for laying that all all out.
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  - Unfortunately, I've got another tough question for you
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  - probably that won't have one clear answer. But
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  - are there any pressures you feel cancer centers
• 5:12
  - or even oncology service lines within health systems
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  - are facing right now that the industry isn't
• 5:18
  - talking about enough?
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  - Sure. I mean, I think, everywhere,
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  - when we talk about,
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  - comprehensive cancer centers like ours,
• 5:28
  - access and workforce is certainly,
• 5:30
  - constrained.
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  - It's not unusual. And again, I have to
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  - say, NYU really, really tries hard to get
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  - patients in through the door. Access is one
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  - of our high priority
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  - operational,
• 5:43
  - efforts that we have undertaken.
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  - But it's not unusual around the country to
• 5:47
  - hear about long waits for oncology appointments.
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  - One way that we are addressing that is
• 5:53
  - leaning on advanced practice providers or APPs
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  - and our nursing staff who are absolutely exceptional
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  - and and and having them
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  - partner with physicians
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  - in terms of,
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  - really improving access, getting patients in through the
• 6:09
  - door much quicker than they would. And then,
• 6:11
  - obviously, physicians step in when necessary.
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  - But this allows us to provide rapid care
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  - to patients who are really,
• 6:20
  - facing probably a very vulnerable moment in their
• 6:23
  - life.
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  - The other thing is geographic equity. You know,
• 6:27
  - as you know, Brooklyn has one of the
• 6:28
  - highest Medicaid populations in the country, but it's
• 6:31
  - very important to us. This is something very
• 6:34
  - personal to me that we don't treat Brooklyn
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  - or Long Island sites as satellites.
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  - NYU is an integrated health care system. They're
• 6:43
  - held to the exact same standard, the same
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  - integrated,
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  - electronic health records, the same trial access as
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  - Manhattan.
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  - And so that's a responsibility for every academic
• 6:52
  - cancer center in a metro area like ours,
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  - which is not to just have one mother
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  - ship and the other place is treated as
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  - sort of outposts.
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  - We really think of Long Island, Staten Island,
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  - and Brooklyn
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  - as part and parcel of the NYU,
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  - universe.
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  - Thank you so much.
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  - I think one of the key pieces, right,
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  - to solving all sorts of those pressures that
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  - oncology leaders are kind of grappling with right
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  - now
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  - would be AI
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  - and how to integrate it, how to utilize
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  - it, how to do it safely.
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  - I'd love to know what your perspective is
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  - on AI, where you've seen it kind of
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  - move the needle or fall flat, and maybe
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  - how you're navigating safety concerns as well.
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  - Great, great question. Something that we are all
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  - thinking about every day and Yes. And and
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  - something that is, you know,
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  - intimately intertwined with our lives, whether you are
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  - asking, you know, a question of
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  - clogged or grok on your cell phone, or,
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  - you know, you are you are integrating,
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  - health records. AI is everywhere. Right? Mhmm. And
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  - so, I think I think from a healthcare
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  - perspective, we are deploying and using AIs in
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  - AI in multiple ways in order to better
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  - deliver cancer care. Now I'm only speaking from
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  - the context of the cancer center. Obviously, AI
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  - is just as valuable in cardiology or or
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  - gastroenterology.
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  - But from the cancer perspective,
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  - I think one of the things that we
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  - are very interested in is how can we
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  - mine electronic health record data
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  - that we have, that people have you know,
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  - all of physicians and nurses have been putting
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  - in diligently over ten years typing into Epic,
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  - but we aren't using that. There is so
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  - much structured
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  - electronic data that's available on each one of
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  - us.
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  - Again, that structured information
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  - be leveraged, be mined by AI to say,
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  - there are signals here suggesting someone may be
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  - at elevated risk for lung cancer, even though
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  - they're not a smoker, but this is someone
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  - that we can potentially offer surveillance or somebody
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  - who is at risk for pancreas cancer. And
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  - in fact,
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  - you know, we have developed
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  - AI based algorithms like that that can be
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  - deployed within
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  - our electronic health care system that,
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  - that can automatically
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  - flag individuals
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  - based on these algorithms
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  - who might benefit from surveillance that our conventional
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  - guidelines may come may not pick up at
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  - all. And so I think this is an
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  - example of using AI for good that really
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  - excites me.
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  - I I have to say that for the
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  - longest time,
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  - ever since AI, you know, hit sort of
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  - our consciousness, I've been hearing about AI replacing
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  - physicians,
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  - and and and sort of giving us a
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  - diagnosis.
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  - But I have to say that,
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  - to me,
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  - AI is is a a a world a
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  - great early warning system. It's a partner. It's
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  - not a replacer. It's a partner.
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  - It tells us, you know, who can benefit
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  - more from surveillance,
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  - what treatments potentially we can use, who might
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  - be at risk for for side effects. But
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  - the clinical decision
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  - ultimately still sits with the physician
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  - and the data that we get. Right?
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  - And so the most important thing is to
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  - make sure that we are using AI safely,
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  - which means having qualified physicians
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  - analyze and check the results,
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  - not to use AI,
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  - to diagnose without without oversight. I mean, we
• 10:30
  - don't want to outsource
• 10:33
  - cancer care to doctor Claude or, you know,
• 10:35
  - doctor Brock. Ultimately, this is going to be
• 10:39
  - a highly qualified oncologist,
• 10:41
  - who's going to be looking at I mean,
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  - using AI
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  - to to maybe,
• 10:47
  - accelerate
• 10:48
  - differential diagnosis
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  - or weigh what kind of treatments might be
• 10:52
  - better in a particular setting, but the captain
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  - of the ship still remains the oncologist. I
• 10:57
  - cannot stress this enough, and no one is
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  - replacing
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  - ultimately the physician's judgment.
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  - Absolutely. I have to say you're the first
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  - leader that's called it doctor Claude, and I,
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  - I think that is just perfect.
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  - But I love what you said too about
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  - the captain of the ship remaining, you know,
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  - the physician,
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  - not doctor Claude. So I think,
• 11:21
  - our audience will appreciate your frame of mind
• 11:23
  - there. Sure.
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  - Is there any challenge you think the next
• 11:28
  - generation of oncology leaders will be tasked with
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  - solving
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  - that maybe the field is ignoring or just
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  - not quite tackling
• 11:38
  - yet? Yeah. I mean, I think, again, a
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  - great question. Kind of feeds,
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  - into what we just discussed in terms of
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  - AI and making sure we use AI for
• 11:48
  - the best
• 11:49
  - possible delivery and and support in the context
• 11:52
  - of health care decisions in in in in
• 11:54
  - oncology.
• 11:55
  - I think, one of the things that,
• 11:58
  - is a great thing is that, oncology has
• 12:01
  - become more complex. I mean,
• 12:04
  - there was a time when when you look
• 12:06
  - at leukemia, there were two types of leukemia,
• 12:08
  - and now there are 20 types of leukemia.
• 12:11
  - Each leukemia is defined by a molecular alteration,
• 12:13
  - and each of those molecular alterations has a
• 12:16
  - specific drug. And sometimes you have three drugs
• 12:18
  - which you use in different time courses. And
• 12:21
  - so so for a graduating fellow,
• 12:24
  - who's going through oncology training, it's a totally
• 12:27
  - different universe compared to somebody who may have
• 12:30
  - trained, you know, twenty years ago. And so
• 12:33
  - I think it's really important,
• 12:36
  - that,
• 12:37
  - you know, in this complex environment,
• 12:40
  - one, we try to keep the facts straight.
• 12:42
  - We we use rational judgment in terms of
• 12:46
  - how care is being delivered, how, treatments are
• 12:48
  - being chosen. But, also, we don't lose out
• 12:51
  - on the opportunity to learn from every patient.
• 12:54
  - For example, this this, you know, KRAS drug
• 12:57
  - that I just talked about,
• 12:59
  - it's a it's a remarkable time, and And
• 13:02
  - we finally have drugs,
• 13:04
  - drugs, actually, not just a drug. A drug
• 13:06
  - got approved, but there's a whole slew of
• 13:07
  - them coming down the pipeline,
• 13:10
  - that that are expanding
• 13:12
  - survival, but they're not curing patients. These patients
• 13:14
  - will still develop resistance.
• 13:17
  - And and sometimes the mechanisms of resistance are
• 13:20
  - very complex and it differ between patients. Well,
• 13:24
  - what what do we use in terms of
• 13:26
  - overcoming that resistance may vary between patients. And
• 13:29
  - so it's really important for us to learn
• 13:31
  - from every patient,
• 13:33
  - understanding not just how a therapy works, but
• 13:36
  - why it stops working for some people and
• 13:39
  - not others. So that learning is a really
• 13:42
  - important step. You cannot treat patients empirically anymore
• 13:46
  - in 2026.
• 13:47
  - You have to treat them with the informed
• 13:50
  - knowledge about why the treatment you're using
• 13:53
  - is stopping to work. So that's really important.
• 13:56
  - The other thing that I think, again, we
• 13:58
  - are doing really well here at NYU is
• 14:00
  - a serial molecular profiling.
• 14:02
  - That's one way where we are tracking patients
• 14:04
  - over time, not just in the beginning to
• 14:07
  - say, well, you got these abnormalities and this
• 14:09
  - is the drug we'll use, but how is
• 14:11
  - it changing over time? So I think the
• 14:13
  - one
• 14:14
  - if there's one dimension about oncology that has
• 14:17
  - really changed
• 14:18
  - is it's not a one snapshot,
• 14:21
  - but it is a serial
• 14:23
  - longitude
• 14:24
  - longitudinal monitoring of patients to understand
• 14:27
  - how their disease is changing over time and
• 14:30
  - how we stay one or two steps ahead
• 14:32
  - of
• 14:34
  - that. Thank you so much. And speaking of,
• 14:36
  - you know, staying one or two steps ahead,
• 14:39
  - I always like to finish conversations with oncology
• 14:42
  - leaders talking about the future. So I'd love
• 14:44
  - to hear from your perspective what's exciting you
• 14:47
  - the most when you look towards the future
• 14:49
  - of cancer care.
• 14:51
  - Well, I mean, to me, I think it's
• 14:53
  - a it's an amazing time. Again, great discoveries
• 14:56
  - are being made every day in labs here
• 14:59
  - at NYU around the country that are going
• 15:01
  - into the clinic that are being translated. So
• 15:03
  - it's an amazing time to be a translational
• 15:06
  - researcher.
• 15:08
  - I think,
• 15:09
  - as the American Cancer Society has reported,
• 15:12
  - there are more people that are alive,
• 15:15
  - after diagnosis of cancer than ever before, which
• 15:18
  - is an amazing thing. Right? Survivorship
• 15:20
  - is increasing, and that's probably one of the
• 15:23
  - best things as a cancer researcher that you
• 15:26
  - can hope for. And I think that's all
• 15:27
  - a result of better screening, earlier detection,
• 15:30
  - and public awareness, plus the better treatments that
• 15:33
  - we now offer from these targeted therapies to
• 15:36
  - CAR T cells,
• 15:38
  - to monoclonals
• 15:39
  - and and other antibodies,
• 15:41
  - etcetera, etcetera.
• 15:44
  - I think, you know, there's also a lot
• 15:46
  - of interest,
• 15:47
  - in terms of in terms of developing sort
• 15:50
  - of better therapies. And the KRAS drug is
• 15:53
  - one example of that, but obviously we need
• 15:56
  - to go and get more combinations that can
• 15:58
  - sustain these responses.
• 16:00
  - I think the fact that problems in the
• 16:02
  - field that looked unsolvable
• 16:05
  - for a very long time, even a few
• 16:07
  - years ago,
• 16:08
  - are finally solvable. I mean, to
• 16:11
  - me, as a cancer center director,
• 16:13
  - that's what keeps me really optimistic.
• 16:17
  - Wonderful. Well, I can't wait to continue covering
• 16:20
  - all the exciting news and innovation that's coming
• 16:22
  - out of NYU Langone. And it's such a
• 16:24
  - pleasure to speak with you, doctor Mitra. I
• 16:26
  - just can't thank you enough for coming on
• 16:28
  - the podcast today.
• 16:29
  - It's my pleasure. And, again, thank you for
• 16:31
  - having me.
• 16:32
  - And thank you to our listeners for tuning
• 16:34
  - in to Becker's Oncology Leadership Podcast.
• 16:37
  - I invite you all to check out even
• 16:39
  - more Becker's healthcare podcasts
• 16:41
  - at beckerspodcast.com.
• 16:43
  - Thank you again to Doctor. Meidrich for joining
• 16:45
  - me and to our listeners. Have a great
• 16:47
  - day.