David H. Abramson, M.D., FACS
David H, Abramson is Chief, Ophthalmic Oncology Service Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Professor of Ophthalmology Weill Cornell Medical School, New York, New York. Over my 50-year career as a clinician scientist focusing on ophthalmic oncology, I have contributed
fundamental insights to the understanding of intra- and periocular tumors, particularly retinoblastoma,
and led highly influential clinical research developing improved treatments. Highlights of my research
include collaborating on the determination of the cell of origin of retinoblastoma (Nature 2014),
identification of molecular alterations in choroidal and conjunctival tumors, and delineation of the
pharmacokinetics of periocular, intraocular, intravenous, and intraarterial delivery of chemotherapy. The
latter work has helped revolutionize the treatment of retinoblastoma, leading to a paradigm in which the
vast majority of eyes can be preserved, often retaining visual function. Other therapeutic advances I
have led include the replacement of exenteration by combined radiation and chemotherapy for
recurrent embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, orbital brachytherapy for recurrent rhabdomyosarcoma,
antibiotics for periocular lymphomas, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for retinoblastoma, and
intravitreal chemotherapy for ocular malignancies. I also served as a PI on the NIH-sponsored 20-year
Collaborative Ocular Melanoma Study (COMS) of uveal melanoma, which led to a standard approach
to 125I brachytherapy and contributed to clinical and epidemiologic knowledge of choroidal melanoma.
For 50 years I have studied and published on second malignancies in retinoblastoma with the world’s
largest cohort of patients and the longest follow-up (some > 50 years). In collaboration with NIH
researchers, Including Fred Li and Joe Fraumeni we have elucidated the role of the gene, environment
and treatment in the genesis of second cancers. As a result of this work, we changed the management
of retinoblastoma-abandoning effective treatment (radiation) because of long term side effects and
introducing alternatives which are more effective, cheaper while with minimizing short and long term
side effects of treatment.
Ongoing

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