Sarah K. Tasian, MD
Areas of expertise: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Targeted cancer therapies, Immunotherapy, Clinical trials
Locations: Main Building
About Sarah K. Tasian, MD
Sarah K. Tasian, MD is a pediatric oncologist and physician-scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine who is interested in development of molecularly-targeted therapeutics for children with high-risk leukemias. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (BS, BA) and Baylor College of Medicine (MD), and she trained in Pediatrics at Seattle Children’s Hospital and in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She specialises in the clinical care of children with hematologic malignancies and is an internationally-recognized expert in pediatric ALL and AML. Her bench-to-bedside and bedside-back-to-bench translational laboratory research program focuses upon testing of kinase inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapies in genetic subsets of childhood ALL and AML. Dr Tasian has leadership roles in the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) ALL and Myeloid Diseases committees and Leukemia Lymphoma Society PedAL/EuPAL consortium, is the COG Developmental Therapeutics committee Vice-Chair of Biology for Hematologic Malignancies, and leads or co-leads several national or international early phase clinical trials testing precision medicine therapies in children with high-risk leukemias.
Dr. Tasian believes in comprehensive, compassionate care of her patients and their families, recognizing that a diagnosis of childhood cancer and its associated intensive therapies are life-changing experiences that impact the entire family.
Dr. Tasian's profile on the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania website.
Titles
Chief, Hematologic Malignancies Program
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Certifications
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology – American Board of Pediatrics
Pediatrics – American Board of Pediatrics
Awards and Honors
2021, CHOP Pediatric Residency Faculty Honor Roll Teaching Award
2020, CHOP Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow Teaching Award
2018, American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Investigator
2015, Best of ASH Annual Meeting recognition for oral presentation
2014, Best poster presentation, International Society of Paediatric Oncology annual conference
2013-2014, Canuso Foundation Innovation Award
2013-2014, ALSF Scholar in Developmental Therapeutics
2012-2014, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Young Investigator Award
2011-2012, American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award
2010, American Society of Clinical Oncology Trainee Travel Award
2010, American Society of Hematology Travel Award
2009-2014, National Institutes of Health Loan Repayment Program (NIH-LRP)
2009, UCSF Pediatric Fellow Teaching Award
2002-2004, Alpha Omega Alpha, cum laude
2001-2002, HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program fellowship
1999, Outstanding Senior Student in Notre Dame Honors Program
1999, Honors Program, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude
1999, USA Today Academic All-American
1995-1999, University of Notre Dame Honors Program
1995, National Merit Finalist
1995, University of Notre Dame Early Action Scholar
1995, Graduated Salutatorian and Summa Cum Laude - Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TX
Leadership and Memberships
Memberships in professional organizations
International
2016 - present, Member, International BFM Study Group (iBFM)
2016 - present, Member, European Hematology Association (EHA)
2014-present, International Society of Paediatric Oncology/Société Internationale D’Oncologie Pédiatrique (SIOP)
2008-present, Children’s Oncology Group
2015-present, AALL1521 Study Chair
2014-present, ALL Disease Committee Member
2014-present, AALL1331 Study Committee Member
2013-present, Ph-like ALL Working Group Member
2013-present, AML New Agents Committee Member
2013-present, Myeloid Disease Committee Member
2011-present, ADVL1011 Study Committee Member
National
2010-present, American Society of Clinical Oncology
2009-present, American Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
2007-present, American Society of Hematology
Editorial and Academic Positions
Editorial Positions
2014-present, Frontiers in Oncology, review editor
Ad hoc reviewer
2015 – present, Pediatric Blood and Cancer
2015-present, PLOS One
2015-present, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
2014-present, British Journal of Hematology
2014-present, American Journal of Hematology
2014-present, Blood
2014-present, British Medical Journal
2012-present, Leukemia
2012-present, Haematologica
Review editor
2014-present, American Journal of Hematology
Academic and Institutional Committees
2012-present, Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship, committee interviewer
2011-present, Pediatric Protocol Review Committee
2011-present, Hematologic Malignancies Steering Committee
Education & training
Medical Degree
MD - Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Residency
Pediatrics - Seattle Children’s Hospital and University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Fellowship
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology - University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco, CA
Additional Training
National Institutes of Health-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholars Program - National Cancer Institute/Pediatric Oncology Branch, Bethesda, MD (Tumor Immunology)
Publications
Publications
2021
Pikman Y, Tasian SK, Sulis ML, Stevenson K, Blonquist TM, Apsel Winger B, Cooper TM, Pauly M, Maloney KW, Burke MJ, Brown PA, Gossai N, McNeer JL, Shukla NN, Cole PD, Kahn JM, Chen J, Barth MJ, Magee JA, Gennarini L, Adhav AA, Clinton CM, Ocasio-Martinez N, Gotti G, Li Y, Lin S, Imamovic A, Tognon CE, Patel T, Faust HL, Contreras CF, Cremer A, Cortopassi WA, Garrido Ruiz D, Jacobson MP, Dharia NV, Su A, Robichaud AL, Saur Conway A, Tarlock K, Stieglitz E, Place AE, Puissant A, Hunger SP, Kim AS, Lindeman NI, Gore L, Janeway KA, Silverman LB, Tyner JW, Harris MH, Loh ML, Stegmaier K. Matched Targeted Therapy for Pediatric Patients with Relapsed, Refractory or High-risk Leukemias: A Report from the LEAP Consortium. Cancer Discov. 2021, online ahead of print. PMID 33563661
Si SJ, Tasian SK, Bassiri H, Fisher BT, Atalla J, Patel R, Romberg N, Lambert MP, Paessler M, Behrens EJ, Teachey DT, Sullivan KE. Diagnostic Challenges in Pediatric Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis. J Clin Immunol. 2021, online ahead of print. PMID 33761058
Duault C, Kumar A, Taghi Khani A, Lee SJ, Yang L, Huang M, Hurtz C, Manning B, Ghoda LY, McDonald T, Lacayo NJ, Sakamoto KM, Carroll MP, Tasian SK, Marcucci G, Yu J, Caligiuri MA, Maecker HT, Swaminathan S. Activated Natural Killer Cells Predict Poor Clinical Prognosis in High-risk B- and T- cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Blood. 2021, online ahead of print. PMID 34077953
Ding YY, Kim H, Madden K, Loftus JP, Chen GM, Hottman DA, Zhang R, Xu J, Hu Y, Tasian SK*, Tan K.* Network Analysis Reveals Synergistic Genetic Dependencies for Rational Combination Therapy in Philadelphia Chromosome-like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Clinical Cancer Research. 2021, in press. (*co-senior authors)
Niswander LM, Loftus JP, Lainey E, Cayé-Eude A, Pondrom M, Hottman DA, Iacobucci I, Mullighan CG, Jain NG, Konopleva M, Cavé H, Baruchel A, Rohrlich PS*, Tasian SK*. Therapeutic Potential of Ruxolitinib and Ponatinib in Patients with EPOR-Rearranged Ph-like ALL. Haematologica. 2021, in press. (*co-senior authors)
Schulz L, Torres-Diz M, Cortés-López M, Hayer KE, Asnani M, Tasian SK, Barash Y, Sotillo E, Zarnack K, König J, Thomas-Tikhonenko A. Direct long-read RNA sequencing identifies a subset of questionable exitrons likely arising from reverse transcription artifacts. Genome Biology. 2021, in press. PMID 34183059.
Tasian SK, Silverman LB, Whitlock JA, Sposto R, Loftus JP, Schafer ES, Schultz KR, Hutchinson RJ, Gaynon PS, Orgel E, Bateman CM, Cooper TM, Laetsch TW, Sulis ML, Chi Y-Y, Malvar J, Wayne AS, Rheingold SR. Temsirolimus Combined with Cyclophosphamide and Etoposide for Pediatric Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: a Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia Consortium Trial (TACL 2014-001) 2021, submitted.
Qin H, Yang L, Chukinas JA, Shah NN, Tarun S, Pouzolles M, Chien CD Niswander LM, Welch AR, Taylor NA, Tasian SK*, Fry TJ*. Systematic Preclinical Evaluation of CD33-Directed Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Immunotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Defines Optimized Construct Design. 2021, submitted. (*co-senior authors)
2020
Liou Am Van Arnam J, Pillai V, Seif AE, Tasian SK, Phillips CA. Transient atypical monocytosis aftere a/b Tt-cell-depleted haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 67(4): e21893, 2020. PMID 31867817
Hurtz C, Wertheim GB, Loftus JP, Blumenthal D, Lehman A, Li Y, Manning B, Cummins KD, Burkhardt JK, Perl AE, Caroll M, Tasian SK. Oncogene-Independent Adaptation of Pre-B Cell Receptor Signaling Confers Drug Resistance and Signaling Plasticity in Philadelphia Chromosome-like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. J Clin Invest. 130(7): 3637-3653, 2020. PMID 32191635
Loftus JP, Yahiaoui A, Brown PA, Wang M, Shauf A, Tannheimer S, Tasian SK. Combinatorial Efficacy of Entospletinib and Chemotherapy in Patient-Derived Xenograft Models of Infant ALL. Haematologica. 106(4):1067-1078, 2020. PMID 32313848
Vadakeklolathu J, Minden MD, Hood T, Church SE, Reeder S, Altmann H, Sullivan AM, Viboch E, Patel T, Ibramimova N, Warren SE, Arruda A, Liang Y, Schmitz M, Cesano A, Valk PJM, Löwenberg B, Pockley AG, Bornhäuser M, Tasian SK, Rettig MP, Davidson-Moncada J, DiPersio JF, Rutella S. Immune landscapes predict chemotherapy resistance and immunotherapy response in acute myeloid leukemia. Sci Transl Med. 12(546): eaaz0463, 2020. PMID 32493790
He B, Gao P, Ding YY, Chen C-H, Chen G, Chen C, Kim H, Tasian SK, Hunger SP, Tan K. Diverse Non-Coding Mutations Contribute to Deregulation of Cis-Regulatory Landscape in Pediatric Cancers. Science Advances. 6(30): eaba3064, 2020. PMID 32832663
Pearson ADJ, Zwaan CM, Kolb EA, Karres D, Guillot J, Kim SY, Marshall L, Tasian SK, Smith M, Cooper T, Adamson PC, Barry E, Benettaib B, Binlich F, Borgman A, Brivio E, Capdeville R, Delgado D, Faller DV, Fogelstrand L, Goodman Fraenkel P, Hasle H, Heenen D, Kaspers G, Kieran M, Klusmann J-H, Lesa G, Ligas F, Mappa S, Mohamed H, Moore A, Morris J, Nottage K, Reinhardt D, Scobie N, Simko S, Winkler T, Norge K, Reaman G, Vassal G. Paediatric Strategy Forum for Medicinal Product Development for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia In Children and Adolescents: ACCELERATE in Collaboration with the European Medicines Agency with Participation of the Food and Drug Administration. Eur J Cancer. 136: 116-129, 2020. PMID 32688206
Contreras CF, Higham CS, Behnert A, Kim K, Stieglitz E, Tasian SK. Clinical Utilization of Blinatumomab and Inotuzumab Immunotherapy in Children with Relapsed or Refractory B-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 24: e28718, online ahead of print, 2020. PMID 33098744
Hecht A, Meyer JA, Behnert A, Wong E, Chehab F, Olshen A, Hechmer A, Aftandilian C, Bhat R, Choi SW, Chonat S, Farrar JE, Fluchel M, Frangoul H, Han JH, Kolb EA, Kuo DJ, MacMillan ML, Maese L, Maloney KW, Narendran A, Oshrine B, Schultz KR, Sulis ML, Van Mater D, Tasian SK, Hofmann WK, Loh ML, Stieglitz E. Molecular and phenotypic diversity of CBL-mutated juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. Haematologica. Online ahead of print, 2020. PMID 33375775
2019
Tasian SK, Casas JA, Posocco D, Gandre-Babbe S, Gagne AL, Liang G, Loh ML, Weiss MJ, French DL, Chou ST. Mutation-Specific Signaling Profiles and Kinase Inhibitor Sensitivities of Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia Revealed by Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Leukemia. 33(1): 181-190, 2019. PMID: 2988490
Gagne AL, Maguire JA, Gandre-Babbe S, Chou ST, Tasian SK, Loh ML, Weiss MJ, Gadue P, French DL. Generation of a human Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia iPSC line, CHOPi001-A, with a mutation in CBL. Stem Cell Res. 31: 157-160, 2018. PMID: 30096712
Black KL, Naqvi AS, Asnani M, Hayer KE, Yang SY, Gillespie E, Bagashev A, Pillai V, Tasian SK, Gazzara MR, Carroll M, Taylor D, Lynch KW, Barash Y, Thomas-Tikhonenko A. Aberrant splicing in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nucleic Acids Res. 46(21): 11357-11369, 2018. PMID: 30357359
Urtishak KA, Wang LS, Culjkovic-Kraljacic B, Davenport JW, Porazzi P, Vincent TL, Teachey DT, Tasian SK, Moore JS, Seif AE, Jin S, Barrett JS, Robinson BW, Chen IL, Harvey RC, Carroll MP, Carroll AJ, Heerema NA, Devidas M, Dreyer ZE, Hilden JM, Hunger SP, Willman CL, Borden KLB, Felix CA. Oncogene. 38(13): 2241-2262, 2019. PMID 30478448
Wagner S, Vadakeklolathu J, Tasian SK, Altmann H, Bornhäuser M, Pockley AG, Ball GR, Rutella S. A parsimonious 3-gene signature predicts clinical outcomes in an acute myeloid leukemia multicohort study. Blood Adv. 3(8): 1330-1346, 2019. PMID 31015209
Surrey LF, MacFarland SP, Chang F, Cao K, Rathi KS, Akgumus GT, Gallo D, Lin F, Gleason A, Raman P, Aplenc R, Bagatell R, Minturn J, Mosse Y, Santi M, Tasian SK, Waanders AJ, Sarmady M, Maris JM, Hunger SP, Li MM. Clinical utility of custom-designed NGS panel testing in pediatric tumors. Genome Med. 11(1):32, 2019. PMID 3113306833.
Chang F, Lin F, Cao K, Surrey LF, Aplenc R, Bagatell R, Resnick AC, Santi M, Storm PB, Tasian SK, Waanders AJ, Hunger SP, Li MM. Development and Clinical Validation of a Large Fusion Gene Panel for Pediatric Cancers. J Mol Diagn. 21(5): 873-883, 2019. PMID 3125579
2018
Zhang Q, Shi C, Han L, Jain N, Roberts KG, Ma H, Cai T, Cavazos A, Tabe Y, Jacamo R, Mu H, Zhao Y, Wang J, Wu SC, Cao F, Zeng Z, Zhou J, Mi Y, Jabbour EJ, Levine R, Tasian SK, Mullighan CG, Weinstock DM, Fruman DA, Konopleva M. Inhibition of mTORC1/C2 Signaling Improves Anti-Leukemia Efficacy of JAK/STAT Blockade in CRLF2-Rearranged and/ or JAK-Driven Philadelphia Chromosome-Like Acute B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Oncotarget. 9: 8027-8041, 2018. PMID: 29487712
Gotesman M, Vo TTT, Herzog LO, Tea T, Mallya S, Tasian SK, Konopleva M, Fruman DA. mTOR Inhibition Enhances Efficacy of Dasatinib in ABL-rearranged Ph-like B-ALL. Oncotarget. 9: 6562-6571, 2018. PMID: 29464092
Ding YY, Stern JW, Jubelirer TF, Wertheim GB, Li F, Chang F, Gu Z, Mullighan CG, Li Y, Harvey RC, Chen I-M, Willman CL, Hunger SP, Li MM, Tasian SK. Clinical Efficacy of Ruxolitinib and Chemotherapy in a Child with Philadelphia Chromosome-Like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with GOLGA5-JAK2 Fusion and Induction Failure. Haematologica. 103(9):e427-e431, 2018. PMID: 29773603
Books
Chapters
2021
Tasian SK. Are we ABL to do better for children with BCR-ABL1-like acute lymphocytic leukaemia? Lancet Haematol. 2021 Jan;8(1):e6-e8. PMID 33357484
Tran TH and Tasian SK. Management of Ph-like ALL. Pathogenesis and Treatment of Acute Leukemia, edited by Harinder Gill. Basel, Switzerland; Springer Nature Publishing, in press, 2021.
Tasian SK. Immunotherapy and TKIs: Precision Agonism or Antagonism for Ph+ ALL. The Hematologist. 18(2). 2021.
SE Conneely and Tasian SK. Take Your ‘Asparagus Medicine,’ Kids! The Hematologist. 2021.
Pommert L and Tasian SK. Chemotherapy Drug Shortages in Pediatric Oncology: A Global Public Health Crisis Threatening Our Children. The Hematologist. 2021.
Lamble AJ and Tasian SK. Bacon-Wrapped Chemo: Can LiposomalCytarabine/Daunomycin Improve Outcomes for Children with Newly-Diagnosed AML Versus Conventional Therapy? The Hematologist. 2021.
2020
Harvey RC and Tasian SK. Clinical Testing for Philadelphia Chromosome-like Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Blood Adv. 4(1): 218-228, 2020. PMID 31935290
Bonifant CL and Tasian SK. The Future of Immunotherapy for Childhood Leukemia. Curr Opin Pediatr. 32(1): 13-25, 2020. PMID 31851053
Curran EK and Tasian SK. Ph-like ALL: Diagnosis and Management. Hematologic Malignancies: Acute Leukemias. (editors Faderl/Kantarjian/Estey) Springer Publishing, 2020, in press.
Tran TH and Tasian SK. Treatment of Ph-like ALL. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Translational Science and Clinical Management for Children and Adults from the Bench to the Bedside, edited by Mark M Litzow and Elizabeth A Raetz. Basel, Switzerland; Springer Nature Publishing, in press, 2020.
Tasian SK and Peters C. Targeted therapy or transplantation for paediatric ABL-class Ph-like acute lymphocytic leukaemia? Lancet Haematol. 2020 Dec;7(12):e858-e859. PMID 33242441
2019
Lamble AJ and Tasian SK. Opportunities for Immunotherapy in Childhood AML. Blood Adv. 3(22): 3750-3758, 2019. PMID 31770440
Lamble AJ and Tasian SK. Opportunities for Immunotherapy in Childhood AML. Hematology Am Soc Hemtol Educ Program. 2019(1): 218-225. PMID 31808843