About Dr. Daniel Labow
- Peritoneal mesothelioma surgeon
- Executive Vice Chair and Vice Chair of Quality for the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System
- New York State Chair of the Commission on Cancer
- Contact information
Daniel Labow is one the world’s leading experts in heated chemotherapy treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma.
He is known for prioritizing the needs of his patients. Dr. Labow uses minimally invasive treatments wherever possible in order to maximize patients’ comfort and accelerate their recovery.
Dr. Labow has been employed at Mount Sinai Health System since 2004. As founder and director of its HIPEC program, Dr. Labow has performed hundreds of life-saving chemotherapy procedures.
HIPEC is a procedure that combines cytoreductive surgery with heated chemotherapy to remove mesothelioma tumors from the abdominal lining.
After a tumor has been removed, the organs and tissues potentially affected by cancer cells are bathed in a warmed chemotherapy solution. Infected areas of the body are directly targeted by the medical solution, which is then absorbed by the body.
Dr. Labow’s Career Highlights
Dr. Labow has dedicated his career to improving his patients’ health and quality of life.
Some of his biggest career accomplishments include:
- Creating the heated chemotherapy program at Mount Sinai Hospital in 2007
- Investing in the future of mesothelioma treatment by training and educating the next generation of surgeons as Program Director of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Surgical Oncology Fellowship
- Performing more than 600 HIPEC procedures since 2007
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Dr. Labow’s Background
Dr. Daniel Labow earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Pennsylvania. He then attended medical school at Brown University before completing his general surgery residency at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Labow also completed a second residency at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and a fellowship in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Now at Mount Sinai Health in New York City, he is particularly dedicated to improving its educational program and is actively developing new processes to improve the patient experience.
Medical Specializations
Dr. Labow focuses on a wide range of specialties in addition to mesothelioma and HIPEC.
Some of his other medical specializations include:
- Gastrointestinal cancers
- Radiofrequency ablation (a minimally invasive procedure that shrinks the size of tumors)
- Soft-tissue sarcomas
- Splenectomy (surgery to remove the spleen)
- Surgery second opinions
Dr. Labow’s Professional Accomplishments
Dr. Labow has dedicated much of his professional career to his work at Mount Sinai Hospital’s cancer center. He has run several clinical trials in an effort to further cancer research and find the best treatments available.
He has published dozens of medical articles and mentored upcoming surgical oncologists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Labow personally championed the hospital’s HIPEC program in the early 2000s, when heated chemotherapy was still a relatively new treatment with many skeptics.
“[HIPEC is] quite unique in combating cancer and getting improved outcomes for patients who often only had months to live. We are getting patients that usually survive only months and are now living multiple years.”
– Dr. Daniel Labow
To date, Dr. Labow has performed more than 600 heated chemotherapy procedures and helped prove HIPEC’s viability as a cancer treatment. He is now one of the most experienced surgeons in the world when it comes to treating peritoneal mesothelioma and other abdominal cancers.
Awards & Honors
- Administrative Chief Resident – University of Chicago Hospital
- American Cancer Society Fellow
- Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors – New York Metro Area
- Chief Research Fellow – Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
- New York Magazine’s Best Doctors
- Robert Paradny Teaching Award
Professional Affiliations
- American College of Surgeons (member)
- American Hepatopancreaticobiliary Association (member)
- Society of Surgical Oncology: Education Committee (member)
- Gastrointestinal Disease Focus Group at Mount Sinai Hospital (chair)
- Commission on Cancer (New York State Chair)
Recent Publications
- Macfie, R. C., et al. (2022). Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy does not increase risk of major complication or failure to rescue in cytoreductive surgery. Journal of Surgical Oncology.
- Marron, T. U., et al. (2022). Neoadjuvant clinical trials provide a window of opportunity for cancer drug discovery. Nature Medicine.
- Shaltiel, T., et al. (2022). Hypophosphatemia is associated with postoperative morbidity after cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy: a retrospective study. Journal of Surgical Research.
- Vietti Violi, N., et al. (2022). FDG-PET/MRI for the preoperative diagnosis and staging of peritoneal carcinomatosis: a prospective multireader pilot study. Abdominal Radiology.
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Dr. Labow’s Cancer Research
Dr. Labow is extremely knowledgeable about numerous forms of cancers and has applied his extensive research to a wide range of medical challenges. Much of his experience is with abdominal cancers like pleural mesothelioma, but he also works with appendiceal, gastric, ovarian, and colon cancer patients.
““As we learn more and more about these diseases — how they start, identifying them on a genetic level, and really profiling patients and categorizing and personalizing their care — we can really impact patients more directly.”
– Dr. Daniel Labow
Notable Work
In a review of peritoneal mesothelioma cases, Dr. Labow looked at the existing research in hopes of helping the medical community better understand, diagnose, and treat this form of cancer in the future.
Because it is rarer than pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma is not as extensively researched and understood.
Dr. Labow’s review highlighted some of the challenges associated with the disease, including diagnostic difficulties, inaccurate staging, and the need for improved therapies.
The study recognized that cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC is the most common first line of defense, but that chemotherapy may be a more suitable treatment for some patients.
Dr. Labow ultimately concluded that while existing treatments have improved, these advancements aren’t enough to drastically improve survival rates.
He also found that research into signaling pathways — which are networks of multiple proteins that transmit signals and initiate cellular response — is promising and should continue to be pursued. Data shows that drugs developed to target specific molecules involved in these pathways may help keep cancer cells from growing.
Dr. Labow’s Healing Philosophy
Dr. Labow believes strongly in both treatment and preventative care.
He has played an integral role in shaping Mount Sinai’s educational programs and philosophy toward health care, which is “to provide compassionate patient care with seamless coordination and to advance medicine through unrivaled education, research, and outreach in the many diverse communities we serve.”
Dr. Labow uses his leadership, outreach, education, clinical experience, and research to help achieve the hospital’s vision, working to deliver the best possible results for every patient.
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Get Connected With Dr. Labow
If you’ve been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma, you may be eligible for cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC. This procedure has helped several peritoneal mesothelioma patients live longer with fewer symptoms.
We can help you connect with Dr. Labow and other top mesothelioma doctors who provide this gold-standard treatment.
Call us at (866) 608-8933 today — our Patient Advocates can get you in touch with Dr. Labow’s team so you can start your treatment journey.