Scott M. Lippman, MD, is now Director of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, moving there from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he held the Charles A. LeMaistre Distinguished Chair in Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology and was Professor of Cancer Medicine and Cancer Prevention. He assumed the UCSD position May 1.
SWOG has named Charles D. Blanke, MD, Chair-Elect. He will become Chair on May 1, 2013, succeeding the current chair, Laurence H. Baker, DO. Renewing the group's NCI research grant will be one of Blanke's top priorities, a news release notes. Blanke is Vice-President of Systematic Therapy for the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver and Professor and Chief of Medical Oncology at the University of British Columbia. He has been a SWOG member since 1999, and has served as the group's Gastrointestinal Committee Chair since 2003, as well as serving as chair of the GIST Task Force for the NCI's Gastrointestinal Steering Committee.
Manish Monga, MD, has joined West Virginia University and the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center as Medical Director of the Clinical Trials Research Unit. "Given his former training at the National Cancer Institute in drug development, we look forward to his leadership to grow our early phase cancer clinical trials program for our patients," the cancer center's Director, Scot C. Remick, MD, said in a statement.
Monga was previously Director of Medical Oncology Services at Schiffler Cancer Center, also in West Virginia, for the past 10 years, where he played a key role in strengthening the hospital's early drug development program.
The NCI has renewed its Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant to the City of Hope's laboratory and translational research efforts in Lymphoma-both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The SPORE will continue to fund four current projects on improving treatments, and supports a developmental research program for pilot translational research projects and a career-development program for young investigators.
The grant's principal investigator is Stephen J. Forman, MD, the Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.
MD Anderson Cancer Center has entered a 10-year agreement with Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein (HIAE) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to bring MD Anderson's specialized expertise to the HIAE oncology program to improve patient care, research, education, and prevention with the aim of making the hospital the premier cancer care center in South America. Deborah Kuban, MD, Professor in the MD Anderson Department of Radiation Oncology, will be the clinical lead on the project.
The National Consortium of Breast Centers awarded their 2012 IMPACT Award to a team of individuals and business and health care professionals for creating a series of professional videos for Clinical Breast Examination training for medical professionals and Breast Self-Examination education for both male and female patients. The team includes Suzanne Taylor, MD, CBEC; Colleen Johnson, RN, NP, CBPN-IC; Cathy Cole, RNC, NP, MPH, CHES, CBEC, CBPN-IC; Shireen Braner, PA, RT, (R)(M)(QM), CBEC, CBPN-IC; Bret Miller; Ashlee Bernal; Dana Larson; Valerie Martin; Patricia Matthews; Teresa Montgomery; Maria O'Bryan; Brandi Palmer; Candy Warinner; Robert Miller, Sr.; Kathy Quinn; Scott Jolley; Peggy Miller; Leah Smith; Michael Wetherwax; Jenae Wetherwax; and Michaelann Dimitrijevich.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced the election of the following individuals from the oncology community into the 2012 Class of Members:
* Jef D. Boeke, PhD, Founder and Director of the HiT Center, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
* Larry Corey, MD, President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Medicine and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Washington.
* Thomas Curran, PhD, FRS, Deputy Scientific Director and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
* Brian Jay Druker, MD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator and Director of the Knight Cancer Center at Oregon Health and Science University.
* Philip Andrew Hieter, PhD, Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia.
* Tyler E. Jacks, PhD, HHMI Investi-gator, Director of the David Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
* Mark Johnston, PhD, Professor of Bio-chemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado.
* Stuart K. Kim, PhD, Professor of Developmental Bio-logy and Genetics at Stanford School of Medicine.
* David T. Scadden, MD, Chief of the Centers for Hematologic Malignancies and Co-chair of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard Stem Cell Institute of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
* Brenda Schulman, PhD, HHMI Investigator and Member of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
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