Our Services

New England Trophoblastic Disease Center

The New England Trophoblastic Disease Center evaluates and manages patients with molar pregnancy and gestational trophoblastic disease. This Center is recognized internationally as a foremost resource for advancing the understanding and treatment of gestational trophoblastic diseases.

Through a National Cancer Institute grant, the Center was established for the diagnosis and treatment of trophoblastic disease. The Center's registry is the largest of its kind in the Western hemisphere and is used in ongoing clinical investigations following more than 3,000 patients diagnosed with this disease since 1965.

Using information collected from the registry, physicians and researchers with the New England Trophoblastic Disease Center have published more than 200 articles over the past four decades and have been instrumental in pinpointing ways of detecting and treating the disease in symptomatic patients and developing a worldwide resource network.

Through blood and urine tests developed to detect elevated human chorionic gonadotropin (HGC) levels, a sensitive marker of the disease, the physicians of the Center are able to determine the presence of the disease and the least toxic treatment regimen for the patient.

The New England Trophoblastic Disease Center, founded by Dr. Donald P. Goldstein in 1965, was the first regional center in the United States devoted solely to the treatment of gestational trophoblastic disease. To date, the Center has participated in the care of over 4,000 patients and has developed an international reputation as an outstanding clinical, teaching, and research center for trophoblastic tumors.

Dr. Donald P. Goldstein has been director of the Center since its inception. In 1979, Dr. Ross S. Berkowitz joined the staff after completing the American Cancer Society Fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital. In addition, Drs. Goldstein and Berkowitz play an active role in the teaching program of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology by participating in the training of Gynecologic Oncology fellows, residents, nurses and medical students. The doctors also attend numerous national and international meetings and fulfill many speaking engagements at medical schools and hospitals in this country and abroad.

Both Drs. Goldstein and Berkowitz are involved in a wide variety of research projects relating to trophoblastic disease. These include both clinical and laboratory research projects on the immunogenetics of trophoblastic tumors, the development of new treatment techniques, clinical staging of trophoblastic disease, improved methods of hCG assay, serum protein changes in trophoblastic disease, tissue culture of trophoblastic tumors, cytogenetic studies, psychosocial implications of trophoblastic disease and the epidemiology of trophoblastic tumors.

Drs. Goldstein and Berkowitz have published extensively the results of almost four decades of their clinical research.

What can you do to help?

Some of these activities and projects are funded by the Choriocarcinoma Research Fund of the Center. All of these activities would not be possible without the continuing support of our patients, their families, and friends. If you would like to help, please send your tax-deductible contribution to:

How to contact us

Important telephone numbers:

Donald P. Goldstein, MD (617) 732-8843
Ross S. Berkowitz, MD (617) 732-8843
Debra Cotto, RN (617) 732-8844
Irene Goss-Werner, LICSW (617) 632-5836

If you need to contact your doctor after office hours or on a weekend for a medical emergency, you must page the gynecologic oncology fellow. Call the page operator at (617) 732-6660 and ask the operator to page the on-call gynecologic oncology fellow.