Stephanie F. Polites, M.D., M.P.H.

For Dr. Stephanie Polites, surgery is more than a technical craft, it's a calling to help children and families find hope in the face of complex diagnoses. As a pediatric surgeon and researcher at Mayo Clinic, she brings both precision and empathy to every patient she meets. Her work is guided by a simple belief: every child deserves care that is as personalized as it is compassionate.

As Chair of the Division of Pediatric Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Dr. Polites leads with the same philosophy she brings to the operating room: teamwork, curiosity, and a deep respect for each child's story. She collaborates across specialties to provide seamless, multidisciplinary care for children with rare and challenging conditions, often when other options have been exhausted.

Areas of Expertise

Dr. Polites' approach centers on compassion, precision, and innovation to help children have successful operations and recover faster. Her clinical focus includes:

• Pediatric surgical oncology: She has advanced expertise in comprehensive surgical care for children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer including minimally invasive tumor resection and treatment of recurrent or refractory cancers. Diagnoses she treats includes:

• Thoracic and abdominal tumors, including lung, chest wall, and mediastinal masses
• Neuroblastoma, hepatoblastoma, Wilms tumor, and germ cell tumors
• Sarcoma including soft tissue sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and pulmonary metastatic osteosarcoma and Ewings sarcoma
• Vascular and lymphatic malformations: Collaborative surgical and interventional approaches to venous and lymphatic malformations, including multidisciplinary management of lymphatic conduction anomalies.

Research

Driven by curiosity and a constant desire to improve outcomes, Dr. Polites leads a precision pediatric surgical oncology clinical trials and technology research program. Dr. Polites' studies include investigation of novel fluorescent agents which can help surgeons distinguish cancer to be removed from normal structures to be saved. Beyond the operating room, she studies surgical survivorship using smartwatches and quality of life data to improve long-term cancer and wellness outcomes.

Dr. Polites is passionate about patient-centered research, using remote visits and data collection whenever possible to help families access clinical trials while minimizing disruption to their busy lives. She is nationally active in collaborative pediatric surgical oncology research and has extensive experience collecting and analyzing multi-institutional data to improve outcomes for patients with rare conditions that require surgery such as pediatric cancer.