Peter Schwartz, MD

Dr. Peter Schwartz has been a member of the Yale Cancer Center since he joined the Yale School of Medicine Faculty in 1975. He was the first Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, which he formed in 1978, and the first Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship Training Program, which was approved by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology in 1980. Dr. Schwartz has served as President of the New Haven Obstetrical Society, The New England Association of Gynecologic Oncologists, The Felix Rutledge Society and The Society for Gynecologic Oncology. His research has focused on gynecologic cancers and their treatment. He is recognized as an international expert on the management of the rare germ cell malignancies, as well as introducing neoadjuvant chemotherapy into the treatment of the common advanced stage epithelial ovarian cancers which now has been accepted as a standard treatment by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network for the United States. He performed the first prospective randomized trial incorporating hormonal therapy with conventional platinum-based chemotherapy based on laboratory research at Yale identifying estrogen receptor proteins in epithelial ovarian cancers. He reported the first series of gynecologic cancer patients to have massive hemorrhage controlled by selective arteriography and transcatheter embolization, coil placement or balloon catheter placement and subsequently showed these techniques could also be employed to control massive postpartum hemorrhage. His clinical studies on the management of uterine serous cancer established a very successful standard therapy for early stage disease, which previously had been associated with an extremely poor prognosis. He has had a strong interest in the early detection of ovarian cancer and established the Yale Early Detection Program for Ovarian Cancer in 1990, one of the first such programs in the United States. That program was based on prior tumor marker research and diagnostic imaging studies he performed with other collaborators at Yale. Dr. Schwartz is a member of the editorial boards of seven professional journals, has served on numerous Department and Yale Cancer Center committees and currently serves as a member of the Oncology Patient Safety and Quality Council and the Smilow Leadership Council.