Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has appointed Sai Yendamuri, MD, MBA, FACS, as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development and Outreach.

Dr. Yendamuri has worked tirelessly to improve lung cancer care and outcomes both in the clinic and laboratory since his start at Roswell Park in 2007. Appointed Chair of Thoracic Surgery in 2015, he leads a grant portfolio of more than $6 million in peer-reviewed funding with focuses on understanding the connections between obesity cancer as well as care for patients undergoing lung resection. In this elevated role, Dr. Yendamuri will supervise Roswell Park’s overall strategic development and identify potential for growth on national and international levels.

“Sai is a brilliant physician-scientist who has shown tremendous dedication in his care for patients as well as leadership in guiding clinical and program initiatives,” says Candace S. Johnson, PhD, President & CEO and M&T Bank Presidential Chair in Leadership at Roswell Park. “Accomplishments across clinical care, research and leadership make Dr. Yendamuri the right person to take on these additional responsibilities at our cancer center.”

Dr. Yendamuri holds a medical degree from All India Institute of Medical Sciences and an executive MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and his training included residencies with MD Anderson Cancer Center, New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens/Cornell University and the Christiana Care Health System. He currently sits on the American Lung Association Local Leadership Board of Directors in Buffalo and is an executive council member of the Eastern Cardiothoracic Surgical Society. He recently received a 2023 Surgical Leaders Fellowship Grant from the American Surgical Association and Society of Asian Academic Surgeons.

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Sai Yendamuri, MD, MBA, FACS, has been appointed Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development and Outreach at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Yendamuri, who has been with Roswell Park since 2007, has significantly contributed to lung cancer care and research, managing a $6 million grant portfolio. His new role will involve overseeing strategic development and identifying growth opportunities. Dr. Yendamuri's extensive background includes a medical degree, an executive MBA, and numerous leadership positions in prominent medical organizations.

Sai Yendamuri, MD, MBA, FACS, has been appointed as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development and Outreach. 

Roswell Park Thoracic Chair Tapped as Chief Strategy Officer, Senior VP of Business Development & Outreach

Following an extensive survey, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRC) has once again named Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center an LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader on its 2024 Healthcare Equality Index (HEI). Now in its 16th edition, the HEI is a national benchmarking tool that evaluates healthcare facilities’ policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and employees. 

Among nearly 2,400 healthcare facilities evaluated nationwide, Roswell Park is one of 384 participating healthcare employers that earned “Leader” distinction after receiving a top score of 100 on the index based on their work to provide safe and high-quality experiences for all staff and patients, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. The HRC is America’s largest civil-rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

“With continued recognition as a Healthcare Equality Leader from the Human Rights Campaign, we reaffirm our commitment each and every day to our LGBTQIA2S+ patients and employees, working to make sure that every person is treated with dignity and respect and is receiving the best cancer care and services possible,” says 

, LGBTQIA2S+ Task Force Chair at Roswell Park and also a faculty researcher in Health Behavior at the cancer center.

In the two years since Roswell Park was last named a Healthcare Equality Leader by HEI, Roswell Park has expanded staff training on cultural competency, continued to update its policies and practices to be more inclusive, and deepened its engagement in LGBTQ+ community events to help increase awareness of cancer-specific needs in this community.

“The Healthcare Equality Index is helping people find facilities where welcoming policies and practices are the standard,” says Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign. “We know that LGBTQ+ people – especially our trans family – continue to face discrimination in the doctor’s office. No one should have to put their health on the backburner for fear of mistreatment in a healthcare facility or by their doctor.”

For more on Roswell Park’s commitment to LGBTQ+ health, please visit roswellpark.org/cancer-care/support/lgbtq-health.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has been named an LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation for 2024. This recognition, part of the 16th edition of the Healthcare Equality Index (HEI), highlights healthcare facilities' policies and practices for LGBTQ+ equity and inclusion. Roswell Park earned a top score of 100 among nearly 2,400 evaluated facilities. The center has enhanced staff training, updated inclusive policies, and increased community engagement to better serve LGBTQ+ patients and employees.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center earned top score of 100 on Human Rights Campaign Foundation survey.

Roswell Park Again Named an ‘LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader’

A targeted therapy for children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) was shown to significantly reduce relapse rates when tested in a large multicenter clinical trial conducted by the 

 (COG) and led by pediatric oncologists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. By combining the targeted antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) brentuximab vedotin (BV) with the standard chemotherapy regimen, children were 10% less likely to relapse. The findings were 

 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).*

“We saw a 10% improvement in event-free survival — a real breakthrough,” says study senior author 

, Chair of the Roswell Park Oishei Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Program, Waldemar J. Kaminski Endowed Chair of Pediatrics at Roswell Park and also Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. “That’s quite a big gain, especially in this field. We expect that this treatment regimen will soon become standard of care for pediatric patients with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma.”

), was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health and conducted at 153 COG sites. The study was also supported by Seagen, formerly known as Seattle Genetics, and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. The study was sponsored by the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis, NCI, and the brentuximab vedotin was provided by Seagen under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with NCI.

“This trial reflects a paradigm shift for advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma in children, and an introduction of the first targeted approach for initial therapy in pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma and the first new regimen in two decades,” says study first author 

, Director of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Program at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, and a research member at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Dr Castellino succeeded Dr Kelly this year as COG Hodgkin Committee Chair. “We are optimistic that this trial will set the stage for FDA approval of this targeted antibody drug conjugate for children and adolescents.”

, Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, adds: “The demonstration of the effectiveness of a highly targeted treatment directed against the malignant cell population in newly diagnosed pediatric and young adult patients with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma is a significant step forward toward improving cure rates and may do so without adding significant long-term toxicity for this young population with many years of life remaining.”

HL is the most common cancer in patients 12-29 years old. Although it has a high five-year survival rate — 97% of those under 19 are alive five years after diagnosis — about one-third of survivors are classified as high risk; of those, approximately 15-20% will relapse.

The COG study — the largest and only randomized phase 3 trial with the CD-30 targeted ADC ever conducted with newly diagnosed high-risk HL pediatric patients — involved 587 patients ages 2-21 with previously untreated disease.

Patients were randomized to one of two arms, both arms receiving treatment over five 21-day cycles. Those in the control group received the standard pediatric chemotherapy regimen.

The second group received the standard pediatric chemotherapy regimen, plus brentuximab vedotin. Brentuximab vedotin (BV) is an antibody-drug conjugate that specifically targets the CD30 protein on the surface of HL cancer cells, destroying them while mostly sparing healthy cells.

Both groups received site radiation therapy based on responses assessed after two cycles of treatment.

Follow-up at about three and a half years after treatment showed 92.1% event free survival in the brentuximab vedotin group, compared with 82.5% for the control group — an overall risk reduction of 59% of relapse, death or a second malignant neoplasm.

Lower risk of relapse could possibly eliminate the need for re-treatment with additional toxic therapies. Over the long term, treatment toxicity puts HL survivors at very high risk of breast cancer, stroke, myocardial infarction, restrictive pulmonary disease, infertility and shortened lifespan.

“Brentuximab vedotin is not anticipated to have long-term toxicity,” says Dr Kelly, noting that during the treatment phase of the clinical trial, less than 10% of patients who received it needed a dose reduction. “Because the drug could be given more consistently, its efficacy improved with no increase in neuropathy or serious infection.”

Dr Kelly, Dr Castellino and colleagues will build on these findings in a new clinical trial set to open in early 2023 with support from the National Cancer Institute. The phase 3 randomized study will enroll approximately 1,900 children and adults ages 5-60 with medium- and low-risk HL. The goal: to determine whether the combination of the the CD30 targeted ADC brentuximab vedotin and immunotherapy agent nivolumab can prolong progression-free survival and further reduce patients’ exposure to standard chemotherapy and radiation. Patients will be followed for 12 years to monitor their progress and gauge the results.

Allison Brashear, MD, Vice President for Health Sciences at the University at Buffalo and Dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, says results of the study “mean a greatly improved quality of life for the most vulnerable and courageous patients — children with cancer.

“As one of the largest demonstrations of a successful immuno-oncologic approach in children with cancer,” Dr Brashear notes, “it is a powerful example of what happens when extraordinary institutions decide that collaboration is key to their success.”

Lucky Jain, MD, MBA, Pediatrician-in-Chief for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics for Emory University School of Medicine, says, “A 10 percent reduction in relapse among children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma is a significant milestone for the field of pediatric cancer. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University are proud of this incredible leap forward led by our physicians, Dr Sharon Castellino and Dr Frank Keller, along with their collaborators and the Children’s Oncology Group.”

*Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number NCTN Operations Center Grant U10CA180886 and NCTN Statistics & Data Center Grant U10CA180899. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

A targeted therapy for children with high-risk Hodgkin lymphoma was shown to significantly reduce relapse rates when tested in a clinical trial conducted by the Children’s Oncology Group and led by pediatric oncologists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. 

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

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Roswell Park Thoracic Chair Tapped as Chief Strategy Officer, Senior VP of Business Development & Outreach

Roswell Park Again Named an ‘LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader’

Pediatric Multicenter Study Shows Targeted Therapy for High-Risk Hodgkin Lymphoma Reduces Relapse