Gregory Anthony Yanik, MD

Dr. Gregory Yanik has been a faculty member within the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program and Division at the University of Michigan since 1992.  He was born and raised in the Detroit area, attended medical school at Wayne State University and trained in hematology-oncology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.  He and his wife Marybeth have three grown children.  Dr. Yanik has been the recipient of many prestigious awards in recognition of his contributions to medical research, clinical care, and education, including the Leland and Elaine Blatt Professorship of Pediatric Oncology, the University of Michigan Pediatric Teacher of the Year Award, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Chairman’s Citation for Outstanding Service.  Dr. Yanik is the founder of and chairs the Executive Committee for the Children’s Hematology Alliance of Michigan (CHAMI), a unique alliance of pediatric hematology/practice teams in the State of Michigan whose goal is to continuously improve the quality of care for children with these medical conditions regardless of where they are treated in the State.  In addition to these many activities, Dr. Yanik makes time to serve on the Executive Committee for Make a Wish Michigan.   

Treatment of acute lung injury post-transplant

University of Michigan Health participates with most health insurance plans.

Dr. Yanik’s research focuses on the development of effective treatments for two of the most deadly conditions in pediatric cancer patients – advanced stage neuroblastoma and lung injury following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. He is considered a national leader in these fields and serves on two Children’s  Oncology Group strategy committees – the Neuroblastoma and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Committees. He is one of the Chairs of the national advanced neuroblastoma clinical trial, which is based in part on preliminary clinical studies that he conducted here at the University of Michigan. He also has been elected to serve on the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group, where he collaborates with other experts to define worldwide standards for neuroblastoma clinical research. In his other major area of study, he recently completed a national clinical study of a new treatment, etanercept, for lung injury after BMT in children. This study showed much better survival outcomes than expected and he has been awarded a “best abstract” prize from the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation in recognition of this work.

Recent Publications:

1. Yanik GA, Mineishi S, Levine JE, Kitko CL, White ES, Vander Lugt MT, Harris AC, Braun T, Cooke KR. Soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor: Enbrel (etanercept) for sub-acute pulmonary dysfunction following allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant, 18:1044-54, 2012.
2. Dubois SG, Chesler L, Groshen S. Hawkins R, Goodarzian F, Shimada H, Yanik G, Tagen M, Stewart C, Mosse YP, Maris JM, Tsao-Wei D, Marachelian A, Villablanca JG, Matthay KK.  Phase I study of vincristine, irinotecan, and 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine for patients with relapsed or refractory neuroblastoma: A New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy trial. Clin Cancer Res, 18:2679-86, 2012.
3. Yanik G, Kitko C. Management of noninfectious lung injury following hematopoietic cell transplantation. Curr Opin Oncol. 25(2):187-94, 2013.
4. Yanik GA, Parisi MT, Shulkin BS, Naranjo A, Kreissman SG, London WB, Villablanca JG, Maris JM, Park JR, Cohn SL, McGrady P, Matthay KK. Semiquantitative mIBG scoring as a prognostic indicator in patients with stage 4 neuroblastoma. A report from the Children's Oncology Group. J Nuclear Med, 54(4):541-8, 2013.
5. Sharp SE, Parisi MT, Gelfand MJ, Yanik GA, Shulkin BL. Functional-metabolic imaging of neuroblastoma. Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 57(1):6-20, 2013.