National Leader in Cancer Symptom Management, Ishwaria Subbiah, MD, Joins Perlmutter Cancer Center

Dr. Subbiah will expand access to new treatment options while keeping quality of life at the center of care.

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- NYU Langone Health announced the appointment of Ishwaria Subbiah, MD, as director of the Symptom Management Program for hematology and medical oncology within the Supportive Oncology Program at Perlmutter Cancer Center and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, effective November 1.

Dr. Subbiah is a physician leader in supportive and palliative care and integrative oncology, specializing in symptom management and quality of life for patients with cancer. She works with patients to optimize quality of life through evidence-based approaches, including medications and behavioral and lifestyle changes to manage the side effects of cancer treatment. 

"Ishwaria's deep experience in clinical trials and symptom management is valuable to the work we're doing at Perlmutter Cancer Center to translate scientific discoveries into individualized patient care," said Anirban Maitra, MD, director of Perlmutter Cancer Center. "As more people are living with cancer than ever before, ensuring that they have the highest quality of life is our utmost priority."

In her new role, Dr. Subbiah will be a leader in research efforts evaluating new approaches to reduce the burden of side effects so patients can live full lives. She will also contribute to the development, implementation, and continuous evaluation of evidence-based innovative clinical pathways for common side effects—including pain, fatigue, nausea, neuropathy, and other treatment toxicities—that impact patients' ability to receive and remain on cancer treatment, with the goal of informing approaches that minimize these effects.

"I was struck by how committed NYU Langone's team is to getting things done at a steady pace and with a sense of purpose. It sets the institution apart in academia and healthcare as a whole," said Dr. Subbiah. "That same momentum, backed by strong leadership, allows us to turn innovation into action and pair cutting-edge treatments with holistic supportive care to deliver a truly person-centered cancer care experience."

Dr. Subbiah brings over 16 years of experience in direct patient care, along with progressive scientific and leadership responsibilities building enterprise-wide programs for in-treatment toxicity management, whole-person symptom optimization, clinical trial access, and workforce well-being.

"Symptom management is so personal and specific to each person's type of cancer. Ishwaria will help foster our efforts in providing care with empathy and respect for every patient and their loved ones," said John P. Leonard, MD, chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and chief clinical officer for enterprise cancer strategy and operations at Perlmutter Cancer Center. "Our mission is to treat the patient, not their disease, and she embodies that mission." 

About Dr. Subbiah

Prior to joining NYU Langone, Dr. Subbiah was an associate professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she provided comprehensive symptom management care for patients with cancer. She led research initiatives examining the barriers to clinical trial participation among older adults and the physical and psychosocial burden of symptoms. Dr. Subbiah spearheaded the launch of the electronic-health-record-integrated remote symptom monitoring program, which manages more than 50,000 monthly patient interactions. She then pivoted to community oncology, gaining immersive experience operationalizing evidence-based programs and patient access in real-world settings. Among other achievements, she developed a clinical trial access strategy and a supportive and palliative care implementation road map for a national network serving more than 1.4 million patients across more than 2,700 providers.

Dr. Subbiah chairs the Health Services Research Committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), serves on ASCO's Supportive Care Guidelines Advisory Group and the European Society for Medical Oncology's Digital Education Committee, and is past chair of ASCO's State of Cancer Care in America initiative.

She designed, secured external funding for, and implemented prospective trials studying the impact of technology-enabled programs on patient symptom burden and the likelihood of clinical trial participation. She served as principal investigator, co-investigator, or collaborator on more than 50 clinical trials and as lead or co-author on 78 publications, including 73 peer-reviewed original research articles on treatment, patient outcomes, and well-being.

Dr. Subbiah also led several multisite, multi-investigator grant submissions to external funders and secured multiyear, peer-reviewed funding from the American Cancer Society, the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation, the Hope Foundation, and Gabrielle's Angel Foundation.

About NYU Langone Health 

NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 122 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation five years in a row, and it continues to have the most No. 1– and top 10–ranked specialties among medical centers in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 400 outpatient locations in the New York City area and Florida. The system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.

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SOURCE NYU Langone Health