Sara Federico, MD
Sara Federico, MD, associate member of the Department of Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, has received the 2020 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This award recognizes and supports outstanding mid-career clinical investigators at NCI-designated cancer centers who are working to improve the lives of people with cancer through NCI-funded collaborative clinical trials and whose leadership, participation, and activities promote clinical trials and research.
Professional Experience
Arriving at St. Jude in 2007 for a hematology/oncology fellowship, Dr. Federico joined the St. Jude faculty in the Division of Solid Malignancies in the Department of Oncology in 2011. She focuses on the treatment of neuroblastoma and Ewing sarcoma and was promoted to associate member in 2017. She is part of the Solid Tumor Division team, which develops and tests novel therapeutic interventions for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors, particularly those at high risk of treatment failure.
As an attending physician and clinical researcher, Dr. Federico writes and conducts clinical trials at St. Jude and through the Children’s Oncology Group. She is the principal investigator of four NCI-funded clinical trials, including an externally funded, multisite international study for the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma. Additionally, she is associate investigator on four NCI-funded trials and a site principal investigator for another three. Dr. Federico is developing the next national phase III high-risk neuroblastoma trial and will serve as principal investigator of this study, which will be conducted through the Children’s Oncology Group.
Over the next few years, Dr. Federico will collaborate with basic and translational researchers on numerous clinical trials. She is completing an international trial for patients with newly diagnosed high-risk neuroblastoma and will open a multi-institutional phase I/II study evaluating poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors for the treatment of Ewing sarcoma. Additionally, she will complete development of a phase III randomized trial for patients with newly diagnosed high-risk neuroblastoma.
