Peter G. Steinherz, MD, is an Emeritus Member of the Department of Pediatrics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). He was a pediatric hematologist and oncologist on the MSK Kids team who cared for infants, children, and young adults with cancer. In his research, he studied the biology of leukemia, lymphoma, and Wilms’ tumor, as well as the development of new therapies that improve the long-term survival of people with these cancers.
During his nearly five decades at MSK, Dr. Steinherz directed the treatment of children and adolescents with leukemia. He and his colleagues pioneered new treatment protocols, including the New York I and New York II protocols, which are now used as the standard of care for leukemia all over the world. These treatment regimens have improved the survival of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) — the most common cancer in children — from 50% in the 1970s to more than 80%for high-risk patients, and over 90% for standard-risk patients today.
Dr. Steinherz and his team also studied new drugs and new combinations of drugs in patients with leukemia that became resistant to standard therapies, and they have improved the survival of these children and young adults.
He was a member of the Leukemia Strategy Group of the Children’s Oncology Group for more than 20 years. He chaired and co-chaired large national and international studies for the group and was a committee member for many other studies evaluating different treatments, including investigational therapies, for young people with leukemia, lymphoma, or other cancers. Dr. Steinherz served as a member of the committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network that developed national guidelines for the treatment of children with ALL. He was also a principal investigator of the Children’s Oncology Group, a position that he felt privileged to have since the group’s inception.
Dr. Steinherz has been a member of many professional organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and International Society of Paediatric Oncology, among many others. He has received awards such as the Humanitarian in Medicine Award from the Lauri Strauss Leukemia Foundation and the Maimonides Legacy Award from Chai Lifeline. Dr. Steinherz has repeatedly been listed as a “top doctor” in publications such as The Best Doctors in America, The Best Doctors in New York, and America’s Top Doctors.