Leonid Cherkassky

Biography:

I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in treating patients with gastrointestinal benign and cancerous disease, with a special focus on liver, bile duct, gallbladder, pancreas, and colorectal cancer. My passion is to work with my colleagues to provide multidisciplinary care, combining surgery with other modalities so our patients can become long-term cancer survivors.

My personal role is to provide experienced surgical care to maximize the number of patients who benefit from resecting these tumors and to provide minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic approaches whenever possible to allow faster patient recovery. I pride myself in providing each patient with the utmost attention to detail and giving care in a speedy, efficient way to ease anxiety and optimize outcomes.

I am the principal investigator of Roswell Park's pancreas cancer quality of care program. Supported by the 1440 Foundation, Roswell Park is a member of the Canopy Cancer Collective, a learning network of leading national institutions (www.canopycancer.org). Our same day multidisciplinary clinic for pancreas cancer patients whereby patients meet with multiple disciplines (surgery, medical oncology, genetics, nutrition) to create a tailored treatment plan ensures patients receive coordinated and efficient care. Our dedicated pancreas cancer nurse navigator further ensures all of our patients receive the highest quality of care and have access to all of Roswell's exceptional resources. We work together to successfully combine surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation so that patients become — and remain — cancer free.

In addition to caring for patients, I conduct laboratory and translational research within the Department of Translational Immuno-Oncology to develop immunotherapies for the treatment of pancreas, liver, bile duct, and colorectal cancers. Even when these cancers are able to be surgically removed, there is often disease that has already spread that can lead to the cancer coming back (‘relapse’). My goal is to combine surgery with immunotherapy to both remove the tumor and treat any disease that has already spread prevent relapse. I focus specifically on developing gene-engineered T cell therapies, a type of immunotherapy where we take T cells and ‘teach’

them to recognize cancer cells. This is done by putting genetic material into T cells (‘gene-engineer’ them) so they can express a receptor that allows them to attack and kill cancer cells. Since T cells can persist for a long time (form ‘memory’) and can circulate throughout the blood, they have particular promise for treating metastatic cancers, preventing cancer relapse after surgery, and achieving long-term responses.

Lab Members:

Jiayu Wang, PhD