Kanti R. Rai, M.D.

Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Chief, Division of Hematology-Oncology
New Hyde Park, NY
Professor of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
(718) 470-7135

Long Island Jewish Medical Center

Dr. Rai's major interest is in understanding the natural history of low-grade lymphoid malignancies, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and in devising improved therapies of hematological malignancies, especially CLL and acute myelocytic leukemia.

CLL is the most common adult leukemia in the western hemisphere. The disease predominantly affects the elderly population and is known to follow divergent clinical courses. Some patients survive especially long periods after diagnosis, whereas others die in a much shorter period of time. The clinical prognostic stratification of CLL, originally proposed by us and known as the Rai staging system, has provided a valuable clinical framework around which to classify patients and build therapeutic decisions. Moving beyond the clinical criteria and exploiting modern molecular biology techniques, Dr. Rai and his team of investigators are currently collaborating with Dr. Nicholas Chiorazzi to study the potential of immunoglobulin variable region gene mutation status and of CD38 expression as additional prognostic indicators.

Keywords: leukemia, lymphoma, genes, cancer therapy

Selected Publications

1. Morrison VA, Rai KR, Peterson BL, Kolitz JE, Elias L, Appelbaum FR, Hines JD, Shepherd L, Martell RE, Larson RA, Schiffer CA. Impact of therapy with chlorambucil, fludarabine plus chlorambucil on infections in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: Intergroup Study Cancer and Leukemia Group B 9011. J Clin Oncol 2001; 19: 3611-3621
2. Rai KR, Peterson BL, Appelbaum FR, Kolitz J, Elias L, Shepherd L, Hines J, Threatte GA, Larson R, Cheson BD, Schiffer CA. Fludarabine compared with chlorambucil as primary therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. New Engl J Med 2000; 343: 1750-1757
3. Gale RP, Park RE, Dubois RW, Herzig GP, Hocking WG, Horowitz MM, Keating A, Kempin S, Linker CA, Schiffer CA, Wiernik PH, Weisdorf DJ, Rai KR. Delphi-panel analysis of appropriateness of high-dose therapy and bone marrow transplants in adults with acute myelogenous leukemia in 1st remission. Leuk Res 1999; 23: 709-718Rai KR, Sawitsky A, Cronkite EP, Chanana AD, Levy RN, Pasternack BS. Clinical staging of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood 1975; 6: 219-234
4. Chiorazzi N, Rai KR, Ferrarini M. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2005 Feb 24;352(8):804-15.