Photo of Edwin Choy, MD, PhD

Edwin Choy, MD, PhD

617-724-4000

Accepting New Patients

Overview

Departments

Hematology/Oncology

Medicine

Centers & Specialties

Cancer Center

Clinical Interests
  • Sarcoma and Connective Tissue Oncology
  • Gastrointestinal tumor
  • Chordoma
  • Desmoid tumor
Medical Education
  • MD, PhD, New York University
  • Residency, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Fellowship, Brigham and Women's Hospital|Fellowship, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Board Certifications
  • Medical Oncology
Locations
  • Boston: Massachusetts General Hospital
Insurances Accepted
  • Aetna Health Inc.
  • Beech Street
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield - Blue Care 65
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield - Indemnity
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield - Managed Care
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield - Partners Plus
  • Cigna (PAL #'s)
  • Fallon Community HealthCare
  • Great-West Healthcare (formally One Health Plan)
  • Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan - ACD
  • Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan - PBO
  • Health Care Value Management (HCVM)
  • Humana/Choice Care PPO
  • MassHealth
  • Medicare
  • Medicare - ACD
  • Neighborhood Health Plan - ACD
  • Neighborhood Health Plan - PBO
  • OSW - Connecticut
  • OSW - Maine
  • OSW - New Hampshire
  • OSW - New York
  • OSW - Rhode Island
  • OSW - Vermont
  • Private Health Care Systems (PHCS)
  • Railroad Medicare
  • Railroad Medicare - ACD
  • Senior Whole Health
  • TriCare
  • Tufts Health Plan
  • Unicare
  • United Healthcare (non-HMO) - ACD
  • United Healthcare (non-HMO) - PBO

Note: This provider may accept more insurance plans than shown; please call the practice to find out if your plan is accepted.

Patient Age Group
Adult
Gender
Male

Biography

Dr. Choy is the Director of Sarcoma Research at the Division of Hematology Oncology at MGH. He specialized in the medical management of patients with sarcomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, chordomas, and desmoid tumors.  He works closely with a team of world class surgical, orthopedic, and radiation oncologists as well as connective tissue pathologists and radiologists to provide optimal care for his patients.  He directs a clinical trials program at the MGH Center for Sarcoma and Connective Tissue Oncology that includes 9-12 active phase I-III clinical trials.  He also maintains an active scientific research program that investigates diverse areas of sarcoma therapy ranging from the use of nanotechnology and other translational research tools aimed at developing new targeted therapies for treating cancers to preclinical studies using cell lines and animal models to better understand the molecular basis of sarcoma biology. 

Research & Publications

Research Summary
Dr. Choy is dedicated to research, teaching, and caring for patients with sarcomas, chordomas, and desmoid tumors. His research endeavors include basic laboratory research, translational studies, and clinical trials all aimed at improving care for cancer patients.

In the laboratory, Choy collaborates with Dr. Zhenfeng Duan and Dr. Francis Hornicek to study the genetics and biology of chemotherapy resistance.In collaboration with investigators at MIT and DFCI, Choy has collected 100 osteosarcoma tumor samples and genotyped them for over one thousand mutations occurring in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. He has currently validated 15 mutations and these findings were presented at the international Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS) meeting in November 2009. Choy also holds joint collaborative sessions with investigators at MIT, sponsored by the Koch Institute, to explore further translational projects to benefit sarcoma patients.

Choy has led the growth of an active clinical research program in sarcomas, expanding the number of clinical trials to 12 trials currently, increasing participation in DF/HCC phase I programs, and increasing the overall enrollment rate onto studies. This success in growing our sarcoma program has led to five abstracts that were presented at this year's annual ASCO meeting.Choy's work has been recognized by a career development award from Harvard Catalyst.
Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

Selected Articles

Choy, E.*, Yelensky, R.*, Bonakdar, S., et al. (2008) "Genetic Analysis of Human Traits In-Vitro: Drug Response and Gene Expression in Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines." PLOS Genetics, 4(11):e1000287. *equally contributing first-authors

Duan, Z.*, Choy, E.*, Harmon, D., Yang, C., Ryu, K., Schwab, J., Mankin, H., and Hornicek, F. (2009) "Insulin-like growth factor-I receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor cyclolignan picrophodophyllin inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis in multidrug resistant osteosarcoma cell lines." Mol. Cancer Ther. 8(8):2122-30. Epub 2009 Jul 28. *equally contributing first-authors

Choy, E., Digumarthy, S., and Koplin, S. (2009) "A 23 year old man with cough, hoarseness, and fever." Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, New Engl J Med. 361(21):2080-7.

Choy, E. and Philips, M.R. (2000) "Expression and activity of a prenylcysteine-directed carboxyl methyltransferase." Methods in Enzymology 325, 101-114.

Dai, Q., Choy, E., Chiu, V., Romano, J., Slivka, S.R., Steitz, S.A., Michaelis, S., and Philips, M.R. (1998) "Mammalian Prenylcysteine Prenyltransferase is in the Endoplasmic Reticulum." Journal of Biological Chemistry 273(24), 15030-15034.

Choy, E., Chiu, V.K., Silletti, J., Feoktistov, M., Morimoto, T., Michaelson, D., Ivanov, I.E., and Philips, M.R. (1999) "Endomembrane Trafficking of Ras: the CAAX Motif Targets Proteins to the ER and Golgi." Cell 98, 69-80.

News & Events

  • MGH patient pursues Paralympic gold in Rio

    A young sailor from Maine will compete with his team for a gold medal in the Paralympic sailing events in Rio de Janeiro. Hugh Freund, 28, who lost his lower leg to cancer as a teenager, will race for the U.S. Sailing Team along with two other disabled athletes as part of a team in the Three-Person Keelboat (Sonar) event.

Contact

Hematology/Oncology
55 Fruit Street
Boston, MA 02114-2696
Phone: 617-724-4000
Fax: 617-643-1915

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