Letter from the Director

Seth J. Orlow, M.D., Ph.D.

Welcome to the NYU Center of Excellence in Cancers of the Skin. This designation recognizes NYU Langone Medical Center's leadership in Cancers of the Skin. Here, researchers have access to one of the nation's largest patient and tissue databases, and collaborate with leading clinicians who translate their ideas to the clinic. Patients receive attention from teams of collaborating physicians with a specific interest in skin cancers, and are the beneficiaries of unique therapeutic protocols developed at NYU.

Established in 1882 as the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, dermatology at NYU has continuously been in the vanguard of skin cancer research and patient care--from opening one of the earliest Mohs surgery units for the treatment of skin cancers to developing the nation's first clinical data bank in dermatology, to devising the "ABCDE" guidelines for quick identification of melanomas. In the 1990s NYU was one of the first NIH-designated Skin Disease Research Centers, and is home to a state-of-the-art facility for producing cancer vaccines and other immunotherapies. More than 9,000 patients with cancer of the skin receive care at NYU Langone Medical Center each year. So in many ways it was only natural that a Center of Excellence for Cancers of the Skin would be established.

A strong component of our effort is our Interdisciplinary Melanoma Cooperative Group (IMCG), created in 2002, whose mission is to advance the care of melanoma patients through a coordinated approach that combines basic science, translational research, and clinical care. The IMCG has enrolled over 1,000 patients who have donated blood and tumor tissue for research with the potential to advance the diagnosis and treatment of melanoma.

The Center of Excellence allows us to grow our melanoma program and to foster more interdisciplinary and collaborative research in non-melanoma skin cancers. Some 40 researchers from over a dozen disciplines are investigating the genetic risk factors for early onset melanoma, the molecular biology of melanoma, prognostic blood markers, prevention and early detection, vaccine strategies, and the development of small molecule therapeutics.

We welcome you to tour our website, review our patient care services and learn about our research initiatives. Thank you for your support and should you require additional information, please contact us at 212-263-9257.

Warmest regards,

Seth J. Orlow, M.D., Ph.D.

Chairman, The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology
Samuel Weinberg Professor of Pediatric Dermatology
Professor of Cell Biology and of Pediatrics
Director, Program in Cutaneous Biology and NYU Center of Excellence on Cancers of the Skin