Meet Leukemia Expert Ellin Berman

Oncologist and hematologist Ellin Berman describes how a team of experts provides a variety of therapeutic options to patients with leukemia, from standard of care treatments to new therapies available in clinical trials.
Video Details
 Ellin Berman, MD

Ellin Berman, MD

Leukemia Specialist

Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Leukemia
  • Blood, bone marrow, and hematologic cancers and conditions
  • Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)

My Specialties

  • Clinical trials
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Dr. Berman's Office Information
Languages: English
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Get to Know Me

I am a board-certified medical oncologist and hematologist with a clinical and research focus on new drug development in acute and chronic leukemias, including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). As a member of the multidisciplinary Leukemia Disease Management Team, I work closely with the many individuals who make up the clinical and research programs here.

Along with other members of the Leukemia Service, I am involved in clinical trials of new drugs that hopefully will lead to new treatment approaches for these diseases. I have also worked closely with the Food and Drug Administration in this regard, and for the last 20 years have helped review new drug applications for the treatment of leukemia.

My current research focuses on understanding how the cells within the bone marrow interact with leukemia cells. We have recently shown that the drug imatinib — one of a relatively new class of agents called tyrosine kinase inhibitors that inhibit growth of CML cells — can also inhibit other cells within the bone marrow that affect growth of bone. In conjunction with researchers here and at other institutions, we have begun to examine how cells within the bone marrow communicate with each other.

I am also interested in why some patients with CML progress despite treatment with imatinib. In collaboration with colleagues here, we have begun to study abnormalities of the CML protein that may explain why imatinib is ineffective in some patients.

As a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, I am also involved in defining the standard of care for patients with CML. I am a member of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), the committee that approves, monitors, and reviews research studies at the Center. I am an Associate Editor for the journal Leukemia Research, and review articles for a number of other journals including Blood. the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Research, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

What I Do at MSK

I’m a leukemia specialist, which is a doctor with special training in diagnosing and treating leukemia (loo-KEE-mee-uh). This cancer starts in tissue that forms blood, such as bone marrow.

  • Attending Physician
Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Leukemia
  • Blood, bone marrow, and hematologic cancers and conditions
  • Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)
  • Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)
  • Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
  • Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)
  • Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
  • Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN)/Myeloproliferative disorders
  • Hairy cell leukemia (HCL)
  • Systemic mastocytosis

My Specialties

  • Clinical trials
Education & Honors

Education

  • MD, Harvard Medical School

Residencies

  • Internal Medicine - Boston University Medical Center

Fellowships

  • Hematology/Oncology - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

  • Internal Medicine
  • Hematology
  • Medical Oncology

Awards and Honors

  • Castle Connolly: America’s Top Doctor (2025)
  • Castle Connolly: Exceptional Women in Medicine (2024)
  • Castle Connolly: America’s Top Doctor (2024)
  • Top Doctors New York Metro Area, Castle Connolly (2023)
  • Exceptional Women in Medicine Award, Castle Connolly (2023)
  • Castle Connolly: America's Top Doctors (2023)
  • Castle Connolly: New York Magazine Top Doctors (2017-2018)

Insurance Information

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If you have questions about insurance, call us at 646-497-9176.

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Contact and Location

Office Phone
Location
New York, NY
David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
530 East 74th Street New York NY 10021
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Colleagues

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.

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Clinical Trials

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Find a Clinical Trial for You

Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.

You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.

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Research and Publications

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Berman’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

See all on PubMed

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Ellin Berman discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


If you’re a patient at MSK and would like more information about your doctor’s external relationships, please talk with your doctor.

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.


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