Wassim Chemaitilly, MD, to Receive Pediatric Endocrine Society Clinician of the Year Award at 2026 Annual Meeting

Wassim Chemaitilly, MD, professor of pediatrics and clinical director, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, will receive the Clinician of the Year Award from the Pediatric Endocrine Society (PES) at the organization's 2026 Annual Meeting. The annual award recognizes sustained clinical contributions to the field of pediatric endocrinology.

Dr. Chemaitilly’s recognition by PES comes from more than two decades of work focused on endocrine complications in children who have been treated for cancer, a population Dr. Chemaitilly has dedicated the majority of his career to studying and caring for.

"I am very humbled to receive the Clinician of the Year award from PES,” Dr. Chemaitilly says. “At the same time, I am very pleased because I see in this award a recognition for the field of late effects of cancer treatments within pediatric endocrinology.”

In addition to receiving the award, Dr. Chemaitilly will present a lecture at the PES annual meeting as part of the Year-in-Review session, in which he will highlight the most significant findings and publications from the preceding year on late endocrine effects after childhood cancer.

Dr. Chemaitilly’s lecture will occur Friday, May 1 from 5 to 6 p.m.

More About Dr. Chemaitilly: A Career Focused on Endocrine Late Effects of Cancer Treatment

Dr. Chemaitilly spent part of his early faculty years at UPMC Children’s from 2008 to 2011 before moving to Memphis, TN, and spending a decade at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital where he furthered his expertise in caring for children with cancer related endocrine disease. He returned to UPMC Children's in 2021 to serve as the division's clinical director. Dr. Chemaitilly’s work in endocrine late effects of cancer treatment reflects the evolution of this field, from the initial characterization of complications and their prevalence, to identifying risk factors and understanding the long-term health consequences of undiagnosed or untreated endocrine conditions in this population.

Children who survive cancer face a significantly elevated risk of chronic health conditions compared to the general population, and endocrine complications are among the most common. Disruptions to pituitary function, growth hormone deficiency, hypogonadism, thyroid dysfunction, metabolic and bone health disorders can all result from cancer treatment. Some may go undetected or untreated for years after an individual has completed therapy.

Dr. Chemaitilly's research at St. Jude, much of it drawing on the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort, a longitudinal study of adult survivors of childhood cancer, helped establish the scope of the problem and its downstream effects on cardiovascular health and overall health outcomes.

"The questions we have been asking about late effects have evolved as childhood cancer survivors started aging into later decades of life," Dr. Chemaitilly says. "We started by recognizing complications and discussing prevalence and risk factors. Then we moved to asking if some of these conditions continued to appear several years after completion of cancer treatment, why these conditions are overlooked, and how we can improve general health by taking care of them. Now we are getting into questions of what is rational and cost effective in screening, and how to make sure these patients are not falling through the cracks."

Research and Collaborations

Among the work Dr. Chemaitilly is currently engaged related to late effects of cancer treatment involves the International Guideline Harmonization Group (IGHG), an international body of experts focused on various aspects of childhood cancer survivor care, of which Dr. Chemaitilly is a member. He is part of an expert panel within the IGHG that has recently concluded its work toward a consensus statement on the safety of growth hormone therapy in childhood cancer survivors, a topic that has been the subject of clinical debate for decades.

Growth hormone deficiency is a well-documented consequence of certain cancer treatments, particularly those involving the area of the brain that produce this hormone, whether from surgery or radiotherapy. However, because growth hormone and hormones it stimulates have been shown in laboratory models to have cell-multiplying properties, there has long been concern among clinicians about the theoretical risk of stimulating tumor recurrence or secondary cancers in patients who have already undergone cancer treatment. Long-term studies have not demonstrated that growth hormone therapy increases the risk of cancer recurrence or cancer-related mortality, though questions around secondary neoplasia, particularly meningiomas in patients who received radiation, remain a source of ongoing controversy and clinical hesitancy.

"This is a discussion I have in every clinic session when caring for childhood cancer survivors who have a need for growth hormone," Dr. Chemaitilly says. "The risk is hypothetical. Most experts think that the hypothetical risk conferred by growth hormone is extremely small compared to the intrinsic risks related to the biology of the tumor and the treatments received. In this discussion, families could be all over the spectrum between eagerness to start treatment right away and unwillingness to even consider it. Our role is to make sure decisions are as informed as possible, that the environment in which these discussions happen is open and safe, and that we guide families on a reasonable timeline so that opportunities for intervention are not missed."

The IGHG consensus statement, which is expected to be published in the near future, is intended to provide a structured, evidence-based framework to support those clinical conversations.

Another project currently in the works involves research being conducted with Clarise Valencia, MD, a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at UPMC Children’s who Dr. Chemaitilly is mentoring. She is conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis of bone density screening in childhood cancer survivors. The research is examining whether and when screening for osteopenia and osteoporosis in this population is clinically and economically justified. Dr. Valencia is collaborating on the project with former colleagues of Dr. Chemaitilly's at St. Jude and with investigators in Ottawa, Canada.

Health Disparities in Childhood Cancer Survivorship

A theme that has been a part of Dr. Chemaitilly's more recent work is a reflection on why so many childhood cancer survivors with endocrine complications go without diagnosis or treatment, and what structural and social factors may play a role in creating these gaps. Data from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort revealed that significant numbers of survivors had untreated conditions, such as growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadism, despite being a well-established risk for them.

That observation led to a recent review paper Dr. Chemaitilly co-authored with Christian Molony, MD, pediatric endocrinology fellow at UPMC Children’s and colleagues at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and St Jude. The paper, titled "Endocrine Late Effects: Consequence or Catalyst to Health Disparities in Childhood Cancer Survivors," was published in Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America in June 2025. The paper explores the relationship between survivorship and health vulnerability, and the ways in which the burden of illness, financial toxicity, and reduced functional capacity that many survivors carry can affect their ability to access follow-up care and how that lack of access can, in turn, negatively impact long-term health outcomes.

"Childhood cancer survivors already have much higher rates of chronic health conditions and worse health outcomes than the general population of individuals of similar ages," Dr. Chemaitilly says. "When we add the barriers that many of them face in accessing survivorship care and endocrine care, it becomes a cycle. Understanding and addressing those barriers is an important direction for the field to advance."

Teaching, Mentorship, and Training the Next Generation

Since returning to UPMC Children's and taking over the role of division clinical director, Dr. Chemaitilly has prioritized teaching and mentorship at multiple levels. Pediatric endocrinology fellows and residents rotating through the ELECT clinic, which is the division's dedicated clinic for endocrine late effects of cancer treatments, created and directed by Nursen Gurtunca, MD, where Dr. Chemaitilly also sees patients, receive direct and hands-on training in survivorship care. Didactic lectures on late effects and survivorship are also incorporated into the fellowship curriculum.

At the national level, Dr. Chemaitilly has contributed training modules focused on childhood cancer survivor cases to the Endocrine Society, the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, and more recently to the PES PedsENDO365 project in collaboration with division fellowship director, Kanthi Bangalore Krishna, MD.

In addition, Dr. Chemaitilly has become more engaged with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, serving as a longitudinal educator for first- and second-year medical students, facilitating small group sessions across a range of topics in the curriculum. He uses those opportunities to introduce students to pediatric endocrinology and to bring students into the endocrinology clinic at UPMC Children’s for clinical observation.

"Very often medical students don't have a chance to know much about pediatric endocrinology and other specialized areas of practice," Dr. Chemaitilly says. "I find it very rewarding to get them into the clinic early, to let them see what this work looks like in practice. I encourage all my peers to do the same. I believe that early engagement with the upcoming generations of physicians can help stimulate an interest in pediatrics and strengthen the future of our field in medicine."