Gerald Rosen, M.D.

Stanford University School of Medicine, 1966

Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Rosen has authored over 200 articles in journals and textbooks on bone, soft tissue sarcomas and neuro-oncology (brain tumors). He is an international authority in these areas. He has authored many treatment protocols, which are being used throughout the world to treat bone and soft tissue sarcomas. As such, he is uniquely qualified to plan a curative approach to patients with these disorders, even those whose tumors have already progressed on other treatments. He has had success in prolonging the disease-free survival of even those patients whose survival would normally be much shorter.

Dr. Rosen is internationally known for starting the concept of pre-operative chemotherapy to increase the cure rate and save debilitating surgery in sarcoma patients, and is piloting similar studies in the treatment of brain tumors. He is also known for changing the way medical oncology is practiced by developing the first truly comprehensive outpatient cancer treatment center that functions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

During his extensive experience in treating malignant tumors, Dr. Rosen has served in key positions with world-renowned hospitals and medical schools. He is currently an attending oncologist at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center in NYC, and has previously served as the medical director of Cedars-Sinai Outpatient Cancer Center in Los Angeles. While at Cedars-Sinai, he also served as an attending physician at UCLA Center for Health Sciences. He was an attending physician on the solid tumor service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where he developed and ran the sarcoma treatment programs, many of which are still used throughout the world today. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then from the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was an intern and resident at New York Hospital - Cornell Medical Center and completed his training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC.

Q&A with Gerald Rosen, M.D., Medical Director, Sarcomas and Brain Tumors

Q: Why did you decide to specialize in Medical Oncology and Sarcoma?

A: After doing molecular biology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD, I took an appointment at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York to do molecular biology research. They told me that I should have a Clinical Niche as long as I was affiliated with the Memorial Hospital. I didn't want to take too much time away from my research, but was talked into doing sarcomas because: "they are very rare and virtually impossible to treat medically" and therefore this area wouldn't take much time away from my basic research.

However in 1972 when we found effective treatment for the very resistant osteosarcoma of bone I became very motivated to make this treatment work for the young adults and adolescents that get this then lethal disease. It became so successful and rewarding that I subsequently completely stopped my basic research to spend full time concentrating on the clinical research and application of those then new techniques to help to cure those patients afflicted with these rare diseases.

Q: Outside of work, what are you most passionate about?

A: My wife and I have 7 children and 9 grandchildren. Outside of work, continuing education activities, and our passion for spending time with our family leaves very little time for theater, opera and charitable events which we still regularly attend.

Q: How do you approach building a relationship and treatment plan with a new patient?

A: Every patient (even though the diagnosis of the type of tumor is the same) is very different, in terms of: the variety of the same type of tumor (pathologic grade): the anatomic location; type and location of metastatic spread present; prior treatment; patient's age, other medical conditions, and ability to tolerate treatment (both physically and emotionally). The relationship with the patient is based mainly on complete honesty with the patient and the treatment plan is formulated based upon the above factors and always has "cure" as the goal.

Today we can cure many patients, but even in the previously-treated patient with metastatic disease we try to formulate a multidisciplinary plan including chemotherapy, radiation therapy and, most importantly, surgery with support from ancillary services that could lead to a cure. I tell the patient with advanced metastatic disease that even if it is highly unlikely that a cure can be expected, if every stage of the plan goes well, it is possible. This gives the patient hope (which should never be taken away from a patient) and helps motivate him/her to undergo treatment and me to search for new treatments. I tell the patient that even if we fail to achieve a cure, this approach will lead to a longer survival.

Q: In terms of cancer care, what gives you hope?

A: what has given me hope is the fact that literally thousands of patients have been cured by my team, or by other teams using treatments that I developed and taught (and still teach) to oncologists around the world. Still seeing the same tumor shrink away even to the same old treatments is always a source of excitement and hope. I still get excited when the first sign of a response to therapy appears. To achieve this hope and excitement, I examine and talk to my patients every day that they attend my treatment center. I try to convey this sense of hope and excitement to the patient because this gift of hope to the patient is one of his/her strongest weapons for achieving good health and hopefully a cure.