Dr. Richard T. Silver, Emeritus Director of the Richard T. Silver Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, was recently honored for his tremendous contributions to the field of hematology with the 2019 Celgene Career Achievement Award for Clinical Research in Hematology.
Dr. Silver was nominated by our own Dr. Ghaith Abu-Zeinah, who presented Dr. Silver with the award during the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
Over the course of his multi-decade career, Dr. Silver’s achievements have led to noteworthy improvements in the understanding and treatment of blood cancers.
He is internationally recognized as a pioneer in chemotherapy and is credited with the development of the bone marrow biopsy technique used to diagnose hematologic disorders.
Dr. Silver participated in the initial clinical trials of imatinib, the first-ever targeted therapy and the most successful in treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and pioneered the use of interferons in treating myeloproliferative neoplasms. He also helped to establish the first multidisciplinary disease group at Weill Cornell Medicine as part of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB). This group worked together to design a comprehensive chemotherapy program to treat hematologic, breast and gastrointestinal malignancies, and developed the standardly used 7+3 chemotherapy regimen for treatment of acute leukemia.
We are proud of Dr. Silver’s remarkable legacy and eager to continue building upon his advancements in the blood cancer field.
In recognition of Dr. Silver’s Career Achievement Award, $25,000 will be granted to Weill Cornell Medicine to support additional research in hematology.