People

Patrick Reagan Named Director of Wilmot’s BMT and Cellular Therapies Program

Oct. 25, 2023
Reagan-Patrick-web
Patrick Reagan, MD

One of the oldest and largest Blood & Marrow Transplant programs in New York state, outside of New York City, now has a new leader.

Patrick M. Reagan, MD, associate professor of Medicine, has been named director of the Blood & Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies program at Wilmot Cancer Institute.

Reagan has served as interim director of the Blood & Marrow Transplant (BMT) and Cellular Therapies Program since 2022 and as clinical director of the Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program at Wilmot since 2020. He has held several key positions at URMC, including chief quality officer of the Division of Hematology Oncology from 2017 to 2021.

In his role as clinical director of the Immune Effector Cell Therapy Program, he focused on research and adapting innovative therapies, such as CAR T-cell therapy, into clinical trials for patients.

Since Wilmot’s BMT program started in 1989, it has performed more than 4,400 transplants. The center performs about 175 transplants per year and about 230 infusions such as CAR T-cell therapy, which is now available for a variety of types of blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, some types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and adult and pediatric patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia. The program recently began providing outpatient CAR T-cell therapy to eligible patients, an effort that required significant planning on the part of the team and Reagan.

"I'm fortunate to have a great group of colleagues who I work with and I'm hoping to build on the things that we've done over the last 30 years of the BMT program at Wilmot,” Reagan says. “We will continue to do the things that we've been doing well for decades while also integrating the new, exciting cellular therapies we have to offer our patients."

Reagan’s contributions go beyond the clinic. He has led numerous publications in well-known journals, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Dr. Reagan's extensive expertise in the treatment of lymphoma, pioneering research into the use of Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and strength as a collaborative leader make him a fantastic choice to lead our world-class team,” said Aram Hezel, MD, chief of Hematology and Oncology at URMC/Wilmot Cancer Institute. “We are thrilled to have him as the director of our Blood & Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Program.”

Reagan is not only committed to ensuring the highest quality of care with the BMT program but also to collaborating with researchers in the lab who are studying immunotherapy, with a goal of helping bring treatments from the lab into clinical trials for patients. 

“Since the first patient in Rochester received CAR T-cell therapy as part of a clinical trial in 2016, Dr. Reagan has led our efforts. He has been instrumental to the success of the program at Wilmot, creating what is now one of the nation’s leading CAR T-cell therapy programs,” says Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, MMSc, director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute. “Dr. Reagan’s research experience in this area and leadership within the team make him ideal to serve as the program’s new director. Please join me in congratulating him and welcoming him to this position.”

Looking forward, Reagan’s role will be to help Wilmot continue to serve as a leader in the stem cell transplantation and immune effector field, for patients at home and across the country.  

“There's been an explosion of new cellular therapies over the last five years and we have to continue to adapt and become experts in these new therapies,” Reagan says. “For the benefit of the patients we serve, I'm hoping to improve on our delivery of that care and increase our ability to help support all of our BMT patients.”

He earned his medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in 2009, graduating with honors. He served as chief resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System and completed a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at URMC before joining as a faculty at URMC and Wilmot in 2015. He has been a dedicated educator, mentoring medical students, residents, and fellows, while contributing to various educational programs during his tenure at URMC/Wilmot.