Pooja Ghatalia, MD

Department of Hematology/Oncology

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Clinical Locations

Primary Location
Fox Chase Cancer Center

Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology/Oncology

Collaborating Member, Cancer Epigenetics

Nuclear Dynamics and Cancer Research Program

Specialties

Treatment Focus

Chemotherapy, targeted chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy, clinical trials for genitourinary malignancies

Research Program

Nuclear Dynamics and Cancer

Key Awards

Medical Oncology

Treatment Philosophy

I am a medical oncologist specializing in genitourinary cancers. Treating patients with cancer is a privilege for me as in the process of diagnosing and treating the illness I get to become the patient’s friend, resource and advocate. In the most difficult times of their life, each cancer patient and their family deserves the best possible care. I strive to provide excellent care by being a good listener, maintaining good communication with patients and my team, staying abreast with the rapidly evolving field of oncology and by providing individualized care to each patient.

I came to Fox Chase for my fellowship and stayed here because I loved the team and realized that at Fox Chase, each patient has the benefit of an interdisciplinary team working together to ensure the highest quality care. This team approach is crucial in determining and implementing the best treatment plan.

In my clinical practice I focus on the care of patients with kidney, prostate bladder, penile, adrenal and testicular cancer and I am proud to be part of a large multidisciplinary team of distinguished clinicians and researchers at Fox Chase. Over the last decade, the number of treatment options for patients with advanced cancers has greatly expanded and at Fox Chase we can offer both the latest standard-of-care as well as new experimental approaches. My particular research interest is in developing biomarkers that can help understand the behavior of kidney cancers as well as clinical trial development for genitourinary cancers.

Educational Background

Fellowship, Hematology/Oncology, Temple University/ Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA
Residency, Internal Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL
MD, Albany Medical College (Cum Laude), Albany, NY, 2012

Certifications

ABIM Board Certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology

Memberships

American Society of Clinical Oncology
American Society of Hematology
American College of Physicians
Alpha Omega Alpha Honor medical society
American Medical Association

Honors & Awards

Philadelphia Magazine Top Doctors, 2023-2024
ASCO/AACR Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology Workshop Selected Participant, Snowmass, CO, 2017
Kidney Cancer Association Young Investigator Award Research Grant, 2017
Trainees in Internal Medicine Mentored Experience in Research (TIME-R) award, 2014

Dan Berdahl

Bladder Cancer
Colorectal Cancer

I’ve been blessed with good health my entire life and retired in 2016 from a career in manufacturing and sales management. During my retirement, I went in a different direction and wrote two novels. Then, at age 87, I was diagnosed with bladder and colon cancer.

VIEW PATIENT STORY

Selected Publications

Ghatalia P., Handorf E.A., Geynisman D.M., Deng M., Zibelman M.R., Abbosh P., Anari F., Greenberg R.E., Viterbo R., Chen D., Smaldone M.C., Kutikov A., Uzzo R.G., The role of cytoreductive nephrectomy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: A real world multi-institutional analysis. J Urol: 101097ju0000000000002495, 2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35212574.

Ghatalia P.,Plimack E.R., Integration of immunotherapy into the treatment of advanced urothelial carcinoma. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 18(3): 355-361, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32135514.

Ghatalia P., Zibelman M., Geynisman D.M.,Plimack E.R., First-line immunotherapy in metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Eur Urol Focus. 6(1): 45-47, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31103603.

Ghatalia P, Plimack ER. Integration of Immunotherapy Into the Treatment of Advanced Urothelial Carcinoma. J Natl Compr Cance Network. 2020 18(3): 355-361. Cited in Pubmed: PMID 32135514

Nam H, Kundu A … Ghatalia P … Sudarshan S. PGC1α suppresses kidney cancer progression by inhibiting collagen-induced SNAIL expression. Matrix Biology. Jan 2020 [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 31986037

Ghatalia P, Plimack E. Biomarkers for neoadjuvant checkpoint blockade response in urothelial cancer. Nature Med. 2019 25(11): 1650. Cited in Pubmed: PMID: 31686037

Winer A, Ghatalia P, Bubes N, Anari F, Varshavsky A, Kasireddy V, Liu Y, El-Deiry WS. Dual Checkpoint Inhibition with Ipilimumab plus Nivolumab After Progression on Sequential PD-1/PDL-1 Inhibitors Pembrolizumab and Atezolizumab in a Patient with Lynch Syndrome, Metastatic Colon, and Localized Urothelial Cancer. Oncologist. 2019 24(11): 1416-19. PMID: 31444293

Ghatalia P, Gordetsky J, Kuo F, Dulaimi E, Cai K, Devarajan K, Bae S, Naik G, Chan T, Uzzo R, Hakimi A, Sonpavde G, Plimack E. Prognostic impact of immune gene expression signature and tumor infiltrating immune cells in localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma J Immunother Cancer. 2019 7(1): 139. Cited in Pubmed: PMID: 31138299

Ghatalia P, Zibelman M, Geynisman DM, Plimack ER. First-line Immunotherapy in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma. Eur Urol Focus. 2019 6(1):45-47. Cited in Pubmed: PMID 21103603

Pabla S, Conroy JM … Ghatalia P… Morrison C. Proliferative potential and resistance to immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer patients. J Immunother Cancer. 2019 7(1): 27. Cited in Pubmed: PMID 30709424... Expand

Nicolas E, Demidova E… Ghatalia P .. Arora, S. Interaction of germline variants in a family with a history of early-onset clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine. 2019 Jan. Cited in Pubmed: PMID 30680959

Ghatalia P, Smith C, Winer A, Gou J, Kiedrowski L, Slifker M, Saltzberg P, Bubes N, Anari F, Kasireddy V, Varshavsky A, Liu Y, Ross EA, El-Deiry W. Clinical Utilization Pattern of Liquid Biopsies (LB) to Detect Actionable Driver Mutations, Guide Treatment Decisions and Monitor Disease Burden During Treatment of 33 Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC) Patients (pts) at a Fox Chase Cancer Center GI Oncology Subspecialty Clinic. Frontiers in Oncology. 2019 Jan. Cited in Pubmed: PMID 30705875

Ghatalia P, Zibelman MR, Geynisman DM, Plimack ER. Evolving landscape of the treatment of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Clin Adv Hematol Oncol. 2018 16(10): 677-86. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 30543598

Nam HY, Chandrashekhar DS .. Ghatalia P .. Sudarshan S. Integrative Epigenetic and Gene Expression Analysis of Renal Tumor Progression to Metastasis. Mol Cancer Res. 2018 Aug. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 30131446

Makhov P, Joshi S, Ghatalia P, Kutikov A, Uzzo RG, Kolenko VM. Resistance to Systemic Therapies in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma: Mechanisms and Management Strategies. Mol Cancer Ther. 2018 17(7): 1355-64. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 29967214

Morrison C, Pabla S .. Ghatalia P… Ernstoff MS. Predicting response to checkpoint inhibitors in melanoma beyond PD-L1 and mutational burden. J Immunotherapy. 2018 6(1):32. Cited in Pubmed; PMID: 29743104

Agarwal N, Pal SK .. Ghatalia P…Grivas P. Characterization of metastatic urothelial carcinoma via comprehensive genomic profiling of circulating tumor DNA. Cancer. 2018 124(10): 2115-24. Cited in Pubmed; PMID: 29517810

Ghatalia P, Rathmell K. ClearCode 34: A validated prognostic signature in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Kidney Cancer 2018 2(1): 23-29. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 30320241

Ghatalia P, Koenigsberg R, Pisarcik D, Handorf E, Geynisman D, Zibelman M. The Evolution of Clinical Trials in Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Status Report for 2013-2016 from the ClinicalTrials.gov Website. Kidney Cancer 2017 1(2): 151-159. Cited in Pubmed; PMID: 30334017

Ghatalia P, Nagarathinam R, Cooper H, Geynisman DM, El-Deiry WS. Mismatch repair deficient metastatic colon cancer and urothelial cancer: a case report of sequential immune checkpoint therapy. Cancer biology and Therapy 2017 July. [Epub ahead of print]

Ghosh AP, Willey CD, Anderson, JC, Welaya K, Mehta, A, Ghatalia P. Kinomic Profiling Identifies Focal Adhesion Kinase 1 as a Therapeutic Target in Advanced Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma. OncoTarget 2017 Apr; 8(17): 29220-32. Cited in Pubmed; PMID: 28418903

Ghatalia P, Zibelman M, Geynisman DM, Plimack ER Checkpoint inhibitors for the Treatment of Renal Cell Carcinoma. Current Treatment Options in Oncology 2017 Jan; 18(1): 7. Cited in Pubmed; PMID: 28210995

Jung K, Ghatalia P, Litwin S, Horwitz EM, Uzzo RG, Greenberg RE, Viterbo R, Geynisman DM, Kutikov A, Plimack ER, Smaldone MC, Wong YN, Bilusic M. Small-Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder: 20-Year Single-Institution Retrospective Review. Clinical Genitourinary Cancer. 2016 Sep. [Epub ahead of print]. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 27991416

Ghatalia P, Yang E, Lasseigne BN, Ramaker RC, Cooper SJ, Chen D, Sudarshan S, Wei S, Guru A, Zhao A, Cooper T, Naik G, Myers RM, Sonpavde G. Kinase gene expression profiling of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma tissue identifies potential new drivers and therapeutic targets. PLOS One 2016 Aug; 11 (8). Cited in Pubmed; PMID 27574806

Zibelman M, Ghatalia P, Geynisman D, Plimack E. Checkpoint Inhibitors for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Current Landscape and Future Directions. Immunotherapy. 2016 June; 8: 785-98. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 27349978

Ghatalia P, Morgan C, Sonpavde G. Meta-analysis of regression of advanced solid tumors in patients receiving placebo or no anti-cancer therapy in prospective trials. Critical Reviews in Oncology/ Hematology. 2016 Feb; 98: 122-36. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 26597016

Anderson JC, Willey CD, Mehta A, Welaya K, Chen D, Duarte CW, Ghatalia P, Arafat W, Madan A, Sudarshan S, Naik G, Grizzle WE, Choueiri TK, Sonpavde G. High Throughput Kinomic Profiling of Human Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Identifies Kinase Activity Dependent Molecular Subtypes. PLoS One. 2015 Sep 25;10 (9). Cited in Pubmed; PMID 26406598

Ghatalia P, Je Y, Nguyen PL, Trinh QD, Choueiri TK, Sonpavde G. Fatigue with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and other malignancies: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Critical Reviews in Oncology/ Hematology. 2015 Aug; 95(2):251-63. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 25900071

Ghatalia P, Je Y, Kaymakcalan MD, Sonpavde G, Choueiri TK. QTc interval prolongation with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. British Journal of Cancer. 2015 Jan; 112(2): 296-305. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 25349964

Ghatalia P, Morgan C, Choueiri TK, Sonpavde G. Congestive heart failure with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Critical Reviews in Oncology/ Hematology. 2015 May; 94(2): 228-37 PMID 25577572

Ghatalia P, Morgan C, Choueiri TK, Rocha P, Naik G, Sonpavde G. Pancreatitis with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Critical Reviews in Oncology/ Hematology. 2015 Apr; 94(1):136-45 PMID 25541349

Ghatalia P, Je Y, Mouallem NE, Nguyen PL, Trinh Q, Sonpavde G, Choueiri TK. Hepatotoxicity with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors: A meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology. 2015 Mar; 93(3):257-76. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 25523486

Ghatalia P, Vick A, Vattoth S, Roberson G, Pappas P. Reversible blindness in cryptococcal meningitis with normal intracranial pressure. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2014 July; 59(2): 310-3. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 24704725

Ghatalia P, Porter J, Wroblewski D, Carlson JA. Primary cutaneous marginal zone lymphoma associated with juxta-articular fibrotic nodules in a teenager. Journal of Cutaneous Pathology. 2013 May; 40(5): 477-84. Cited in Pubmed; PMID 23578183 Collapse

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