Dr. Kamalakar’s burning interest in hematology was lit during his pediatric residency at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. It was a short elective rotation in pathology under the direction of Lester Goldman, MD. “I was fascinated that with merely blood test results, Dr. Goldman could formulate a diagnosis,” Dr. Kamalakar recalls. “His clinical acumen based on a CBC amazed me. The field of hematology still fascinates me.”
Following a fellowship in pediatric hem/onc, Dr. Kamalakar joined the medical staff at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in 1978 and the hem/onc services he initiated there became a Valerie Fund Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in 1985. The Valerie Fund Centers at NBI, MMC, and SBMC were united in 2006 into a single program with three locations under Dr. Kamalakar’s direction.
“The improvements in cancer treatment for children over the last 50 years is a great success story,” says Dr. Kamalakar. “Not only are more children surviving cancer, today, more than 90 percent of NJ youngsters are being treated close to home where they are surrounded by the support of friends and family.” While the odds for children have improved, there are still tumors and blood disorders that do not respond to the team’s arsenal of treatments. In those cases Dr. Kamalakar says he finds solace “in an ancient principle that guides our responsibility to do whatever we attempt to the best of our ability. The results are not in our hands.”
The Valerie Fund Centers’ NJ annual summer camp celebrated its 25th Anniversary this year. “There was a teenage boy at the commemoration who first came to us for cancer treatment when he was a 2- or 3-year-old little rascal,” recalls Dr. Kamalakar with a smile. “Now he is a young man helping other children get through the same difficulties he experienced.” He is one of many patients and parents who return to the Valerie Center for the sake of others. “Caring for seriously ill children and their families is 100 percent humanistic and another 100 percent medical,” Dr. Kamalakar reasons. “One without the other amounts to nothing.”
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Peri Kamalakar, MD 
