Janis L.

Abkowitz

M.D.

Education, Training, Board Certifications

• M.D., Harvard University
• Residency in Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston
• Fellowship in Hematology, UW
• Hematology, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Medical Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine

Clinical Expertise

• Aplastic anemia
• Blood disorders
• Chronic myeloid leukemia
• Myelodysplastic syndrome
• Polycythemia vera
• Essential thrombocytosis
• Red cell aplasia
• Autoimmune diseases
• Myeloproliferative disorders

Affiliations

• University of Washington
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center - Provider
• Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine

Publications  

Research and/or clinical interests

Dr. Janis Abkowitz has been caring for people with a wide spectrum of blood cancers and other blood-related problems since 1983. In that time, there have been major developments in our ability to both diagnose and treat blood disorders. For example, there have been huge advances in how we molecularly characterize a disease, or how we detect chromosomal and DNA abnormalities associated with the disease. This has translated into more effective targeted therapies in general, and more appropriate therapies for individual patients, because we understand more about their particular disease. Fred Hutch is on the leading edge of these advances with both our laboratory research and our clinical trials. Dr. Abkowitz' specialty is working with people who have cytopenias, or low blood counts, and bone marrow failure or dysregulation, which can cause too few or too many blood cells. These diseases include myelodysplastic syndromes (bone marrow problems leading to low levels of blood cells in the bloodstream) and myeloproliferative diseases (bone marrow problems leading to high levels of blood cells in the bloodstream), particularly polycythemia vera and essential thrombocytosis. Dr. Abkowitz' laboratory research focuses on the molecular and cellular events that control red blood cell differentiation (the process where cells become specialized in order to perform different functions), especially how these cells grow and how their differentiation fails in aplastic anemia and myelodysplasia.