Florida Hospital Medical Group and the medical team at Cancer Institute of Florida have added another award-winning cancer specialist with the arrival of Martin Dietrich, MD, PhD in early 2018. Dr. Dietrich is a board-certified medical oncologist with fellowship training in hematology/oncology and a background in molecular genetics research.

Dr. Dietrich sees patients with many types of malignancies but will have a special focus on research, prevention and advanced treatments for breast cancer at the Cancer Institute of Florida.

A noted clinician and researcher, Dr. Dietrich is especially proud of his numerous scientific publications that have contributed "snippets" to the puzzle of clinical and scientific problems. He has had the opportunity to conduct groundbreaking medical oncology research with multiple, prestigious organizations including the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dr. Dietrich arrives in Central Florida from Pembroke Pines, where he was a clinical assistant professor at Florida International University's Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and a member of the thoracic oncology team at Memorial Healthcare. Prior to his work there, he undertook his hematology/oncology fellowship, internal medicine residency and PhD studies in molecular genetics all at the University of Texas Southwestern. He earned his medical degree with distinction from Germany's University of Heidelberg. A marathon runner and world traveler, Dr. Dietrich is fluent in English and German with professional proficiency in Spanish. "We are honored to bring Dr. Dietrich to our practice and look forward to his continued advancements in breast cancer treatment and research," said Tarek M. Mekhail, a leading physician at Cancer Institute of Florida. "He is an outstanding physician with a true passion for helping patients along every step of their healthcare journey."

Florida Hospital Medical Group's Blood & Marrow Transplant Center welcomes Dr. Juan Carlos Varela. Dr. Varela is the newest addition to Central Florida's first and only comprehensive blood and marrow transplant center.

Dr. Varela is board certified in hematology.

"We're very excited to have Dr. Varela join the Blood & Marrow Transplant Center," said medical director, Steven C. Goldstein, MD. "His clinical interests in novel immune therapies for hematological malignancies and bone marrow transplantation, as well as treatments for leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma will be of great benefit to Orlando and our patients from around the world."

Dr. Varela obtained his MD,PhD from the Medical University of South Carolina in 2010. He received his residency training in internal medicine in the Osler medical training program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Subsequently, he completed his fellowship training in hematology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Varela is an award-winning researcher and physician, having been honored as a Calebresi Scholar and an Abney Scholar at the Medical University of South Carolina in recognition of clinical excellence.

Dr. Varela is a member of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the American Society of Hematology. He is the principal investigator for numerous national clinical trials.

Dr. Varela's areas of specialty include:

• Clinical Trials in Cellular Therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Autologous and Allogeneic Blood and Marrow Transplantation
• Acute and Chronic Graft vs Host Disease
• Hematologic Malignancies

o Leukemia

o Lymphoma

o Multiple Myeloma

o Myelodysplastic Syndrome

o Marrow Failure