From Patient to Decorated Physician: A Full Circle Journey in Pediatric Oncology

Before Richard Gorlick, MD, was diagnosed with sarcoma at the age of 13, he thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps and build furniture. Instead, Gorlick, who now serves as head of the Division of Pediatrics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) in Houston, Texas, was motivated by his cancer journey to enter the field of medicine.

“For me personally, [being a childhood cancer survivor] was hugely important in driving my motivation and interest in going into [medicine],” Gorlick said.

When he started his education at a combined 7-year medical program at Brooklyn College and SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Gorlick was unsure about whether he wanted to pursue adult or pediatric oncology.

“I had a hard time making the decision as to whether I wanted to work with children or adults. I spent most of my time making that decision and decided on pediatric oncology, which is where I got my start,” Gorlick said. “Through [my] personal experiences, it was the way to go. From that time on, I have always been in this area.”

After completing his residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, he pursued a pediatric oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which is where he specialized in sarcoma, became a physician-scientist, and established his first laboratory.

After about a decade at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he relocated to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he helped build the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology as an associate professor and as director of the Department of Sarcoma Research Laboratory. Since 2016, he has served in his division head role at MD Anderson.

“I still love my profession and still enjoy taking care of patients and being involved in the different aspects of what I do,” he said.

Advancing Research in a Challenging Disease State

Gorlick, a prolific researcher with a keen focus on osteosarcoma, has been involved in numerous clinical trials, including as an investigator in the EURAMOS-1 trial (NCT00134030), which to date is the largest phase 3 North American trial in osteosarcoma.¹ As a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) he established a national tissue bank for osteosarcoma that is considered the largest in the world.² In addition, Gorlick cited his involvement in developing patient-derived xenograft models, which have been utilized by hundreds of labs, as particularly significant.³

“We’re excited that things may get better, but so far progress has been challenging in this particular disease. Going one step further, the most important thing is, even when our trial does not lead to advancements, you learn from it,” he stated. “That has certainly been the case in each of these studies, so we know a lot more than we used to know.”

Gorlick’s laboratory functioned as a bone tumor resource laboratory for the COG national tissue and participates in an NCI-funded drug testing consortium that is screening drugs through osteosarcoma models.4,5 His lab maintains a focus on molecular pharmacology, with a recent focus on proteomics and elucidating surface targets for osteosarcoma.

Although there is no such thing as a typical workday for Gorlick, he does have a generally defined weekly schedule. On Mondays, Gorlick primarily sees patients with osteosarcomas. As the head of pediatrics at MD Anderson and a physician-scientist, he spends Tuesdays carrying out administrative tasks, while Wednesdays are for focusing on research in the lab. Thursdays and Fridays are not planned and usually are used to address needs identified earlier in the week.

“It depends on what you know is the need, but as a physician-scientist, you split your time between patient care activities, research activities, and a major part of my function is administrative,” he said. “I do intermittently get the opportunity to teach fellows and contribute to education, but that’s more intermittent than the other things, because of time demands, not because I do not believe it’s as important.”

Gorlick’s primary goal is to attain prolonged survival in osteosarcoma. Most of his effort and interest, he explained, remains in developing a novel therapy for these patients, emphasizing that antibodydrug conjugates may hold promise for this population.

ASCO Awards Come Full Circle

Gorlick, who won the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Pediatric Oncology Award in 2024, traces his roots with the organization to the beginning of his career. Receiving the ASCO Young Investigator Award in 1996 and the Career Development Award in 1998 enabled his transition into a physician-scientist.

His initial exposure to ASCO as a Young Investigator Award recipient gave him the idea to apply for its Career Development award, the funds from which helped to elevate Gorlick to an independent role early in his career.

“[The awards were] critical. That gave me 2 extra years to start [receiving] NIH support, which ultimately allowed my transition to independence,” Gorlick said. “I have a very deep appreciation of ASCO and their awards programs, and it has made a huge difference and came at a critical time [in my career].”

Highlighting Nuances in Pediatric Patient Journeys

When asked about how his sarcoma diagnosis has influenced his career, he said that although it drove him to care for these patients, he is careful to remember that each patient’s experience is unique and different from his own. Gorlick is selective about disclosing his own experience with the disease.

“If it would be helpful for me to share it, I do, but many times I don’t, because their experience that they’re going through is quite different. Everybody reacts to a cancer diagnosis differently [and] has a different treatment course. At the same time, as a physician, I need to recognize that the key is always listening [to and] understanding them…but also listening to their families [and] whoever [else] is part of their journey,” he said.

One patient journey that deeply impacted Gorlick was that of a young individual who experienced disease recurrences following modest responses across multiple clinical trials, lived to graduate college, having been afforded 7 years before succumbing to the disease.

For Gorlick, this patient’s focus on continuing his life, his dynamic personality and funny exuberance, and his appreciative nature despite having the disease, serve as a reminder that more must be done to help these patients.

“Despite his life being shortened, in many ways, it was still very rich, and he got to do a lot of [the things] he wanted to do,” he said. “It was that outlook, that resiliency, that perspective, that made a lasting impression. I always remember him as a sort of driving force for remembering, ‘We have to do more. We have to do better.’"

A Family Affair

Gorlick described medicine as a thread in his family.

He married his wife, Anne Kleiman, DO, a neurooncologist at MD Anderson, in 1990. His son, Joshua R Gorlick, MD, is the chief fellow of hematology-oncology at the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, part of Texas Children’s Hospital. Joshua is married to Mary-Kate Gorlick, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and the assistant medical director of Harris Health System.

He also has a daughter, Sarah Gorlick, who received her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a masters in business administration and works at a consulting firm.

“It’s not a requirement [to be in medicine], but it’s a thread,” Gorlick said. “I have 2 brothers, the next older brother was going to be an engineer, but when I…was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to change his career path, and he became a physician, as well. That comes back to the statement that a cancer diagnosis impacts the whole family. That was not his plan, but he decided [to go into medicine].”

Life Philosophy and Interests

Gorlick lived within a 30-mile radius of New York City and Long Island for most of his life as a “lifetime New Yorker,” he said. Now at MD Anderson, he said that its commitment to cancer research and alignment with his values finally drew him out of the state where he had lived for the majority of his life.

“[MD Anderson] is a wonderful cancer center; an organization with tremendous values and a tremendous focus on their mission [and] meaning. They have a great symbol with [the word] cancer crossed out. In many ways, it says it all."

Gorlick believes that doing the right thing is the statement that most aligns with his values, applying it universally to life with his patients and family, and when mentoring others. By extension, he finds that the things he does for others are the most rewarding.

“Folks will say about me that if there’s ever a moral dilemma, I do not view [it as a] moral dilemma; there’s just right and wrong. You always do what’s right. You never think about doing the things that you know may be easier but are not the right thing to do,” he said.

Michael Roth, MD, a professor of pediatrics and a pediatric hematologist at MD Anderson who considers Gorlick a mentor, reinforced Gorlick’s ideals in a written statement.

“Dr Gorlick is highly patient-centered in all that he does. He is fair, transparent, and a leader whom people genuinely want to follow,” Roth wrote. “He empowers others to lead, prefers to stay out of the spotlight, and always elevates the accomplishments of those around him. He believes his success is measured by the success of the faculty, staff, and trainees he supports.”

To Gorlick, his role as a mentor to rising stars in the field may be a greater contribution than any medical advance he has helped facilitate.

Outside of work, Gorlick’s primary activity is spending as much time with his granddaughter, Lila, as possible. Admitting to having a work-oriented nature during the formative years of his own children, he views the time spent with his granddaughter as a second chance.

“There’s been a generational shift in parenting and the amount of father involvement. It’s… an indictment of the past,” he said. “When I was a parent and our kids were under 1, I…maybe did not get as much time with my kids as I would have liked to at that age. Now, [spending time with Lila is] a second opportunity as a grandparent.”

Gorlick, a self-described early riser, is motivated to wake up early every morning by his fulfilling roles as a physician-scientist and grandfather.

“I find life incredibly exciting. I love what I do professionally. I love my family. I have a great life. I am somebody who believes I have had a great career, great friends, [and] great colleagues. I get to work and the people I work with always bring things to me that are new and different and exciting and stimulating,” he said. “I am a happy person.”

References

1. Whelan JS, Bielack SS, Marina N, et al. EURAMOS-1, an international randomised study for osteosarcoma: results from pre-randomisation treatment. Ann Oncol. 2015;26(2):407-414. doi:10.1093/annonc/mdu526
2. Glover J, Krailo M, Tello T, et al. A summary of the osteosarcoma banking efforts: a report from the Children’s Oncology Group and the QuadW Foundation. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2015;62(3):450-455. doi:10.1002/pbc.25346
3. Rokita JL, Rathi KS, Cardenas MF, et al. Genomic profiling of childhood tumor patient-derived xenograft models to enable rational clinical trial design. Cell Rep. 2019;29(6):1675-1689. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2019.09.071
4. Childhood cancer leader joins MD Anderson to lead Pediatrics. News release. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. December 5, 2016. Accessed August 8, 2025. https:// tinyurl.com/nhb2p7ak
5. Gorlick Laboratory. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/ bdxh3yw3