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Dr. Manuel Hidalgo, a leading physician-scientist who specializes in pancreatic cancer and drug development, has been named chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective June 1. Dr. Hidalgo will also serve on the leadership team at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology provides exemplary, comprehensive cancer care, diagnosing and treating patients with cancer and non-malignant blood disorders, and engaging in cutting-edge research. In his new position, Dr. Hidalgo will expand and enhance Weill Cornell Medicine’s and NewYork-Presbyterian’s cancer programs by recruiting outstanding new oncologists and hematologists. Working closely with the Meyer Cancer Center and other multidisciplinary institutes and academic departments, Dr. Hidalgo will enhance research and clinical collaborations across the academic medical center. He will also strive to broaden access to cancer care and clinical trials for underserved populations by leveraging Weill Cornell Medicine’s and NewYork-Presbyterian’s clinical expansions.

Dr. Hidalgo will succeed Dr. David Nanus, who has led the division since 2004, first as co-chief with Dr. Barbara Hempstead until 2012, then as division chief. Dr. Nanus will remain on Weill Cornell Medicine’s faculty and serve as director of NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine’s Healthcare Services’ Cancer Program. In this role, Dr. Nanus will unify oncology programs at NewYork-Presbyterian’s regional hospitals. He will also continue to serve on the Meyer Cancer Center leadership team.

Recruited as the E. Hugh Luckey Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Dr. Hidalgo comes to Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he served as chief of the Division of Hematology as well as clinical director of the Rosenberg Clinical Cancer Center. He is also the Theodore W. and Evelyn G. Berenson Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and deputy associate director for clinical sciences at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.

A respected oncologist and premier investigator, Dr. Hidalgo’s work has centered on translational and clinical research in anticancer drug development with a particular emphasis in gastrointestinal cancers. He has developed, tested and helmed the early clinical development of more than 50 new anticancer agents for pancreatic and other solid tumor cancers. Three of those agents, including nab-paclitaxel, are now approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of GI cancers, including pancreatic cancer. His team also pioneered the development of a personalized cancer model using mice, called mouse avatars, to pre-test cancer treatments.

“We are delighted that Dr. Hidalgo will be joining Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian as the new chief of hematology and medical oncology,” said Dr. Anthony Hollenberg, the Weill Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and physician-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “He is a gifted clinician, skilled leader and educator, and his innovative research in pancreatic cancer and drug development is unparalleled. He will undoubtedly be instrumental in the institution’s vision to both broaden healthcare access for underserved populations and strive for the ultimate goal of discovering treatments and cures for cancer.”

“We are so pleased to welcome Dr. Hidalgo to NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine,” said Dr. Katherine L. Heilpern, senior vice president and chief operating officer of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “Dr. Hidalgo is an outstanding clinician, renowned researcher and educator who is deeply committed to the fight against cancer. We look forward to the wealth of experience he will bring to our Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and to the difference he will make in the lives of countless patients and their families.”

“Dr. Hidalgo is a leading authority in oncology who has special expertise in pancreatic cancer and will be vital in our efforts to further elevate the cancer enterprise at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian,” said Dr. Peter Schlegel, senior associate dean for clinical affairs at Weill Cornell Medicine. “Not only does he bring extraordinary expertise that will drive new advances in cancer research and patient care, including his unique experience in clinical trials, but he will also help prepare the next generation of physicians to strive for the same level excellence. We look forward to working with Dr. Hidalgo as he enhances the division’s mission to provide our patients with the best, most innovative treatment.”

“The unified mission of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian to offer the best, most cutting-edge cancer treatments, and the shared goal of curing this disease is very exciting to me,” Dr. Hidalgo said. “There is a real opportunity for us to come together and build a team that will take our institutions to the next level in cancer care and innovation. We are looking for excellence—in training, research and care—as we aim to have a lasting impact, offering hope to cancer patients across the city.”

In his new role, Dr. Hidalgo will oversee a division comprised of nearly 100 physicians and advanced practitioners, 13 fellows and 14 research groups focused on basic and translational research in hematology, vascular biology and oncology. Division oncologists and hematologists work to create individualized treatment plans for patients based on the latest technological and scientific advances, collaborating with cancer researchers to ensure that their medical discoveries are translated into effective, leading-edge therapies. Specialized programs include medical oncology, blood cancers, non-malignant hematology and vascular diseases, and bone marrow and stem cell transplantation.

Under Dr. Hidalgo’s direction and working with the Joint Clinical Trials Office at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the division will enhance its already robust clinical trials portfolio, which takes the innovative approaches to cancer therapy from the lab to the patient. “Our priority is ensuring that our clinical trials portfolio is modern, comprehensive and diverse,” he said, “so patients with advanced cancers have the opportunity to receive the latest therapies.”

He plans to leverage opportunities afforded by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian’s clinical expansion into Lower Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn to enhance the division’s distinguished clinical and research programs. This work will also improve access to cancer care for underserved communities, he said, and provide opportunities for researchers to learn about cancer variations among different, diverse patient populations. “By broadening our clinical services throughout the city, it is a great opportunity to offer better care, including prevention programs, and for clinical research,” he said. “This will allow us to learn more about the genetic basis of cancer in different ethnicities, which is still quite unknown.”

Dr. Hidalgo will foster new opportunities for scientific discovery and clinical care through robust collaborations with both the Caryl and Israel Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the Meyer Cancer Center. “I really want the division to capitalize on all of the great projects and scientific innovations that are being developed in the lab at the Meyer Cancer Center and move them to the clinic,” Dr. Hidalgo said. “We want to be able to provide basic scientists with critical feedback they can then use to orient and refine their research.”

The work between the division and the Englander Institute will also be critical to the development of groundbreaking cancer therapies. The two groups will work together using ultra-precision techniques to learn about the unique genomic details of every patient’s tumors, in order to provide them with the best, personalized cancer treatment.

About Dr. Manuel Hidalgo

Dr. Hidalgo is a clinically active oncologist whose research, funded by the National Cancer Institute and the European Research Council, focuses on new drug development in pancreatic cancer. He has published more than 220 articles in top-tier journals including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research and Cancer Discovery, where he also serves as a scientific editor. Dr. Hidalgo is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) and the European Society of Medical Oncology. He has received multiple awards from ASCO, including a Career Development Award, an AACR-Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Fellowship in Clinical Research, as well as international honors for his work in cancer.

Dr. Hidalgo received his medical degree in 1992 from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, and a doctorate in infectious diseases and cancer from the University Autónoma of Madrid, Spain. He completed his residency training in medical oncology at the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid and a fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, where he also served as an assistant professor of medicine. In 2001, he joined Johns Hopkins University as an associate professor of oncology and in 2003 became director of the gastrointestinal oncology program at the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2009, he became director of the clinical research program at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) in Madrid and vice director of translational research in 2011. Since 2015, he has served as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Weill Cornell Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine is committed to excellence in patient care, scientific discovery and the education of future physicians in New York City and around the world. The doctors and scientists of Weill Cornell Medicine — faculty from Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, and Weill Cornell Physician Organization—are engaged in world-class clinical care and cutting-edge research that connect patients to the latest treatment innovations and prevention strategies. Located in the heart of the Upper East Side's scientific corridor, Weill Cornell Medicine's powerful network of collaborators extends to its parent university Cornell University; to Qatar, where Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar offers a Cornell University medical degree; and to programs in Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Weill Cornell Medicine faculty provide comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian Queens and NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Weill Cornell Medicine is also affiliated with Houston Methodist. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.

NewYork-Presbyterian

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation’s most comprehensive, integrated academic healthcare delivery systems, whose organizations are dedicated to providing the highest quality, most compassionate care and service to patients in the New York metropolitan area, nationally, and throughout the globe. In collaboration with two renowned medical schools, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian is consistently recognized as a leader in medical education, groundbreaking research and innovative, patient-centered clinical care.

NewYork-Presbyterian has four major divisions:

• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is ranked #1 in the New York metropolitan area by U.S. News and World Report and repeatedly named to the Honor Roll of “America’s Best Hospitals.”
• NewYork-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network comprises hospitals and other facilities in the New York metropolitan region.
• NewYork-Presbyterian Physician Services, which connects medical experts with patients in their communities.
• NewYork-Presbyterian Community and Population Health, encompassing ambulatory care network sites and community healthcare initiatives, including NewYork Quality Care, the Accountable Care Organization jointly established by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia.

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