Larry Kwak, MD, PhD
Tanya Siddiqi, MD
Stephen J. Forman, MD
Larry Kwak, MD, PhD, has been appointed the Deputy Director of City of Hope’s Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute. Tanya Siddiqi, MD, Associate Clinical Professor in City of Hope’s Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, has been appointed Director of the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) Program within the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center, one of the seven disease and modality centers within the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute.
Dr. Larry Kwak
In his newly created role, Dr. Kwak will help oversee the centers within the institute, including recruitment, clinical and laboratory research, and faculty development, in partnership with Stephen J. Forman, MD, the Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Director of the institute.
Dr. Kwak will retain his titles as Director of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center, Vice President and Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Dr. Michael Friedman Professor in Translational Medicine.
Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People,” Dr. Kwak joined City of Hope in 2015. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and is the recipient of the Chang-Yul Oh Memorial Award from the Korean Medical Association and the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, which is considered the “Nobel Prize of Korea.”
Dr. Tanya Siddiqi
In Dr. Siddiqi’s new role, she will oversee research efforts to advance the search for a cure in this disease, including the growth and maintenance of the CLL tissue bank that she has already developed. She will conduct translational studies in collaboration with lab researchers, some of which are already underway, and Dr. Siddiqi will be investigating novel treatments for CLL, including innovative work with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.
Dr. Siddiqi will also continue to lead CLL phase I, II, and III national and international clinical trials at City of Hope, in partnership with investigators from other academic medical centers, national cooperative intergroups, and pharmaceutical companies. Some of these trials have led to regulatory approval of ibrutinib in the treatment of CLL.
Dr. Siddiqi is an accomplished hematologist-oncologist who specializes in diagnosing and treating blood cancers, in particular CLL and B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. She is the Supervising Physician of City of Hope’s anticoagulation clinic.
In addition to her new role, Dr. Siddiqi will continue her work in the Gehr Family Center for Leukemia Research and will continue to serve as a member on the CLL/hairy cell leukemia panel, as well as the venous thromboembolic disease panels, for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network®. ■
