Catherine J. Lee, MD

“Our methods of transplantation for helping to cure patients of their blood disorders have improved remarkably, and we can offer lifesaving treatment to many more people than we could before. ”

— Dr. Lee

What motivates or inspires you about your work?

Patients can have side effects after treatment that affect their quality of life as a complication of blood and marrow and cellular transplantations. My goal is to help prevent and alleviate these often-debilitating effects, including chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). I’m focused on understanding these effects, helping to intervene and preventing other long-term consequences of transplantation. I also want to improve health care for patients.

What do you hope it's like for a patient to work with you?

I hope my patients view me as a really dedicated doctor who is interested in understanding their concerns and who is willing to work with them to develop the best treatment plan that also has their priorities in mind.

I value my relationships with patients and providing personalized care, where we have a strong connection and are making decisions together.

Provider Background

Specialty: Hematology Oncology

Area of clinical practice
Adult blood and marrow transplantation, cellular therapy

I am a medical oncologist and hematologist who sees patients at the South Lake Union Clinic.

I specialize in autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplants for the treatment of malignant and benign hematologic diseases in adults. I provide both standard-of-care cellular therapy treatments and those being tested in clinical trials. My research portfolio includes designing clinical trials for chronic GVHD, implementing interventions to improve access to high-quality transplant care, and optimizing the health of post-transplant/cellular therapy patients. I have been the local principal investigator for clinical trials surrounding CAR-T cell therapy, post-transplant maintenance strategies to prevent AML relapse, and novel conditioning regimens for MDS/AML.

Diseases Treated