Mitchell S. Cairo, M.D., is currently the vice chair and professor (with tenure) in the Department of Pediatrics at New York Medical College (NYMC). His additional current leadership positions include being the chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, director of the Childhood and Adolescent Cancer and Blood Disease Center, Medical and scientific director of the Cellular and Tissue Engineering Laboratory at Westchester Medical Center (WMC), medical director of the WMC Hematotherapy Program and director of the WMC Cancer Center. Dr. Cairo’s additional academic appointments include being a professor of pediatrics, medicine, pathology, microbiology and immunology and cell biology and anatomy and public health at NYMC.

Dr. Cairo joined the faculty of Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) in 1982 and established the BMT/Stem Cell Transplant program there in 1985 as director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Also, at CHOC Dr. Cairo was the Principal Investigator (PI) for Children’s Cancer Group and PI of the Cord Blood Collection Center and Cord Blood Transplant Center under an NHLBI award. In 1997, he was recruited to Georgetown University where he became a professor of pediatrics, medicine and pathology and chief of the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation, Cellular and Gene Therapy and director of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplantation program at the Lombardi Cancer Center and medical director of the NHLBI Cord Blood Collection Center. In 2000, Dr. Cairo was recruited to Columbia University and was a professor of pediatrics, medicine and pathology and director of the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, member of the executive committee of the Department of Pediatrics, medical director of the National Marrow Donor Unrelated Transplant program, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation and member of the executive steering committee of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. In 2011, Dr. Cairo was recruited to NYMC and WMC.

Dr. Cairo has been a leader in basic, translational and clinical research in childhood, adolescent and young adults with cancer and blood diseases. Dr. Cairo has been the chair of several NCI/CCG/COG national and international clinical trials. Dr. Cairo is the co-editor of the textbook Hematological Malignancies in Children, Adolescents and Young Adults.

Education

• B.A., University of Wisconsin
• M.D., University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
• Chief Resident, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
• Residency, Pediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Harbor General Hospital
• Fellowship, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Indiana University

Research

Dr. Cairo has more than 475 peer reviewed publications, more than 1,300 national and international abstract presentations, more than 50 book chapters and edited two textbooks. He is an international leader in the biology and treatment of childhood and adolescent lymphomas and leukemias, stem cell transplantation, developmental therapeutics, experimental hematopoiesis and immunology and stem cell biology and regenerative therapy. Dr. Cairo was a pioneer in the use of cord blood stem cells for treating pediatric malignant and non-malignant disease, the use of cord blood stem cells for potential regenerative therapy and stem cell transplantation for sickle cell disease.

Publications

• Luo W, Hoang H, Zhu H, et. al. "Circumventing resistance within the Ewing sarcoma microenvironment by combinatorial innate immunotherapy." Journal for immunotherapy of cancer, 12(9), (2024) . doi: 10.1136/jitc-2024-009726
• Paudel SN, Hutzen BJ, Miller KE, et. al. "Myelomodulatory treatments augment the therapeutic benefit of oncolytic viroimmunotherapy in murine models of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors." Frontiers in immunology, 15(), (2024) 1384623. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1384623
• Paudel SN, Hutzen BJ, Miller KE, et. al. "Corrigendum: Myelomodulatory treatments augment the therapeutic benefit of oncolytic viroimmunotherapy in murine models of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors." Frontiers in immunology, 15(), (2024) 1456897. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1456897
• Luo W, Hoang H, Miller KE, et. al. "Combinatorial macrophage induced innate immunotherapy against Ewing sarcoma: Turning "Two Keys" simultaneously." Journal of experimental & clinical cancer research : CR, 43(1), (2024) 193. doi: 10.1186/s13046-024-03093-w
• Chu Y, Nayyar G, Tian M, et. al. "Efficiently targeting neuroblastoma with the combination of anti-ROR1 CAR NK cells and N-803 in vitro and in vivo in NB xenografts." Molecular therapy. Oncology, 32(2), (2024) 200820. doi: 10.1016/j.omton.2024.200820
• Gardenswartz A, Cairo MS. "Therapy for Relapsed/Refractory B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults." Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network : JNCCN, 22(5), (2024) . pii: e247006. doi: 10.6004/jnccn.2024.7006
• Braniecki S, Vichinsky E, Walters MC, et. al. "Neurocognitive outcome in children with sickle cell disease after myeloimmunoablative conditioning and haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a non-randomized clinical trial." Frontiers in neurology, 15(), (2024) 1263373. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1263373

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Memberships and Affiliations

• Society of Pediatric Research (SPR)
• American Pediatrics Society (APS)
• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• Eastern Society for Pediatric Research (ESPR)
• American Society of Hematology (ASH)
• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
• American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
• American Association of Immunologists (AAI)
• International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH)
• American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
• American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO)
• Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
• Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium (PBMTC)
• Coalition of Geriatric Services (COG)