Sarah K. Tasian, MD, PhD
Areas of expertise: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Targeted cancer therapies, Immunotherapy, Clinical trials
Locations: Main Building, Buerger Center for Advanced Pediatric Care
About Sarah K. Tasian, MD, PhD
Sarah K. Tasian, MD, PhD, 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 specializes 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
Attending Physician
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
Graduate Degree
PhD - Acadenuegebouw Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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
PubMed
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