More than 80 medical oncologists and hematologists affiliated with Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) – one of the nation’s largest networks of oncology specialists — are on the frontlines of the fight against cancer in New Jersey, providing care to well over 100,000 people each year in 19 community-based practices across the Garden State.
The impact of those physicians’ professional and personal endeavors extends far beyond New Jersey, however, as demonstrated by three RCCA oncologists and their activities across the Atlantic, the Pacific, and — closer to home — the Hudson.
James M. Orsini, MD, traveled to Bologna, Italy, last month, where he was honored at the annual meeting of the International Conference on Hematology and Oncology for his career achievements in cancer care. The trip represented a full circle, of sorts, because Dr. Orsini had journeyed to Bologna as a young man to study medicine at the city’s famed university. After earning his medical degree there, Dr. Orsini remained in Italy, treating patients including the father of world-renowned tenor Andrea Bocelli. His clinical care and research during his time in Italy led to publication of one of the first medical reports on the adjuvant treatment of node-negative breast cancer with systemic chemotherapy.
Beyond his medical education in Bologna, Dr. Orsini completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and fellowships in medical oncology and hematology at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and the Milan Institute of Cancer in Milan, Italy.
Dr. Orsini founded New Jersey Cancer Care, an oncology/hematology practice with offices in Belleville, Montclair, and Roselle. The practice and its eight physicians joined RCCA in July 2024. Dr. Orsini serves as Director of Oncology at Clara Maas Medical Center in Belleville.
Dr. Avishek Kumar’s time away from the office this summer was hardly your typical “island get-away.” Rather than jetting down to the Caribbean for a few days of sand, surf, and sun, the cancer specialist traveled 8,000 miles to the U.S. territory of Guam, where he was one of 147 military service members who provided care to the Pacific island’s residents. “We saw more than 1,500 patients in the first week of August,” says Dr. Kumar, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve and medical oncologist who practices in RCCA’s Edison, N.J. offices.
Dr. Kumar explains that his career aspirations were shaped by three influential figures — his mother, his father, and Tom Cruise. He explains that his physician parents endowed him with a love of medicine and of the doctor’s role in providing compassionate care and real hope to people facing serious illness. At the same time, however, repeated viewings of “Top Gun” imbued the young man with a fascination with flying and, particularly, military aviation.
After graduating from Rutgers University, Dr. Kumar took flying lessons at Morristown Airport whenever he was home during breaks from his studies at Saint George’s University School of Medicine. After earning his medical degree, Dr. Kumar embarked upon postgraduate training that encompassed not only an internal medicine residency at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, a geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, and a hematology and oncology fellowship at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, but also flight surgeon school with the Air Force Reserve.
Sometimes you don’t have to go far from home to truly “go the distance.” In November, Andrew M. Bernstein, DO, took a short trip across the Hudson to run 26.2 miles through the Big Apple’s five boroughs in the New York City Marathon. While he crossed the finish line in 3 hours and 29 minutes, his completion of the race marked the end of a far-longer journey — an arduous road to recovery after he tore his hamstring in the October 2023 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.
“There was still a long way to go when I started hurting in the Marine Corps Marathon, but when I looked at the veterans and other people running with so many significant physical challenges, there was no way I was going to drop out,” says the medical oncologist and hematologist, who practices in RCCA’s Riverdale offices. His rigorous physical rehab regimen after that race enabled Dr. Bernstein to run the Boston and London marathons just six days apart this April. Because his gait had not fully returned to normal, however, he experienced a partial Achilles heel tear and, while he finished those marathons, he needed to visit the medical tent in both Boston and London.
By contrast, Dr. Bernstein ran the New York City Marathon without a hitch, tear, or strain. That injury-free performance leaves him in good shape, literally, to travel to Japan next March, where he and his wife will run the Tokyo Marathon. When they cross the finish line in that race, Dr. Bernstein and his wife, who also is a physician, will have earned the Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal, signifying their completion of the Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, and Tokyo marathons. Since taking up running in 2009, the cancer specialist has participated in numerous marathons and other long-distance events, including a 200-mile relay that he completed with five friends this summer.
Dr. Bernstein says that his running provides a means for establishing rapport with his patients and offering them encouragement. “I have a couple of marathon photos up in the office, which sometimes will prompt a discussion. I always stress that the significance of running a marathon or any other accomplishment is based on where you are in your life and what you’re able to do. My patients are running marathons of their own. I have so much respect for what they’re doing, and their example keeps me going.”
Established in 2012, Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) has 100+ cancer specialists providing community-based care in 26 offices in New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, and the Washington, DC area. RCCA oncologists and hematologists see more than 26,000 new patients each year and provide care to more than 245,000 established patients, collaborating closely with those patients’ other physicians. RCCA specialists offer patients innovative therapies, including immunotherapies and targeted therapy, as well as access to approximately 300 clinical trials. In addition to serving patients who have solid tumors, blood-based cancers, and benign blood disorders, RCCA care centers also provide infusion services to people with a number of non-oncologic conditions—including multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, iron-deficiency anemia, and rheumatoid arthritis—who take intravenously-administered medications.
To learn more about RCCA, call 844-928-0089 or visit RCCA.com
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call 844-346-7222. You can also schedule an appointment by calling the RCCA location nearest you.
The American Cancer Society will host its 43rd annual Diamond Ball Gala on November 24, 2024, at the Westmount Country Club in Woodland Park, NJ.
Like many people, Avishek Kumar, MD, scheduled some time away from the office this summer. However, his version of an “island get-away” was hardly the norm.
Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA), one of the nation’s largest networks of oncology specialists, today announced that Hematology Oncology Specialists of Cape Cod (HOSCC) and its three medical oncologists/hematologists will join RCCA.
Regional Cancer Care Associates is one of fewer than 200 medical practices in the country selected to participate in the Oncology Care Model (OCM); a recent Medicare initiative aimed at improving care coordination and access to and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
