John Andrew Boockvar, MD

Description

John Boockvar, MD, is the vice chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and director of the department's Brain Tumor and Pituitary/Neuroendocrine Center, at Lenox Hill and Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat hospitals. Dr. Boockvar's compassionate cancer care was recently highlighted in the critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries Lenox Hill and Emergency NYC. Boockvar is a professor of neurological surgery and otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is also an investigator at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, where he directs the Laboratory for Brain Tumor Biology and Therapy. Dr. Boockvar was appointed as an adjunct professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory thanks to his great advancements in understanding and treating brain cancer including glioblastoma. He is also head of experimental therapeutics for Northwell Health, where he helps oversee the cancer research goals for Northwell as a whole. In 2025, Dr. Boockvar was awarded the prestigious Doctor of Distinction award by the American Cancer Society for his exceptional clinical research into cures for brain cancer. Dr. Boockvar is internationally known for his surgical expertise and for providing patients with safe, effective and minimally invasive treatment for brain tumors, skull base and pituitary diseases and disorders of the spine. His surgical expertise is in benign (meningioma, pituitary) and malignant brain tumors (gliomas, metastasis) skull base and endoscopic pituitary surgery, spinal and peripheral nerve tumors, minimally invasive spinal surgery, and complex spinal disorders.Dr. Boockvar has been recognized for his novel research in brain tumors, and has been named to lists including New York Magazine's Top Docs, Best Doctors in New York-Castle Connolly, New York Super Doctors, America's Top Surgeons, America's Best Doctors, and America's Best Doctors for Cancer. His research has been widely published and he has received numerous awards, including the Eric Lichtenstein Humanitarian Award from Voices Against Brain Cancer and the prestigious Vision of Hope Award at the 2025 Cristian Rivera Foundation Celebrity Gala for his compassionate work in treating patients with brain cancer. Dr. Boockvar was elected to the esteemed Academy of Neurological Surgeons and to the Senior Society of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. Dr. Boockvar is also an honorary surgeon of the NYPD and the New York State Troopers.