President Names Vanderbilt's Hiebert to National Cancer Advisory Board
President Barack Obama has nominated Scott Hiebert, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and Associate Professor of Medicine, to serve as a member of the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB).
The NCAB Board consists of 18 members appointed by the president to advise the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a division of the National Institutes of Health. Individuals are selected from among leading representatives in health and science, along with members of the general public, including leaders in public policy, law, health policy, economics, management, and the environment. Members are appointed to serve for overlapping terms of 6 years.
Among other activities, the NCAB reviews grant applications for research, training, health care information and programs for cancer patients and their families.
Hiebert is the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and is Associate Director of Basic Research and of Shared Resources at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). He is among six people nominated to the federal board.
He joined the Vanderbilt University faculty in 1997, where his laboratory research focuses on the molecular basis for leukemia development while testing new "epigenetic" therapies for blood-related cancers. In his role as Associate Director of VICC's Basic Research and Shared Resources efforts, Hiebert oversees programs that include more than 100 faculty members and more than $50 million in research funding from public and private sources.
Hiebert also serves as chair of the scientific advisory board of the Edward P. Evans Foundation. He is highly published in the cancer field and currently has three research grants from the NCI as well as a grant to support the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America Names President/CEO
Cancer Treatment Centers of America Global, Inc. (CTCA) recently announced that Rajesh K. Garg, MD, JD, a highly regarded health care industry leader with more than 25 years of experience across the health care spectrum, has taken office as its President and CEO. He also is a member of the company's national Board of Directors.
Garg sees significant opportunities ahead for CTCA in its quest to conquer cancer. "Cancer remains a scourge that demands our collective attention and resolute commitment to defeat. CTCA stands at the forefront in providing patients with numerous innovative therapeutic options, including advanced genomic, precision and immunotherapeutic programs, an unparalleled range of integrative therapies, and a caring, warm and nurturing patient experience. I am honored to have the opportunity to join hands with the more than 5,000 remarkably talented Stakeholders (employees) in this fight."
Garg earned an MD from Stanford Medical School, a JD from Yale Law School, and a BA in genetics and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining McKinsey & Company in 1992, he practiced medicine and law in California. He serves on the board of directors of The New York City Children's Holiday Party, Inc., a charitable enterprise dedicated to providing holiday cheer to homeless children.
CU Cancer Center Professor Earns ASCO David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award
Paul Bunn, Jr., MD, FASCO, distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and James Dudley Professor of Lung Cancer Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine has been named the 2016 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture recipient, an award presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Annual Meeting.
The award is named after David A. Karnofsky, researcher and oncologist at Harvard University and then Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Karnofsky was instrumental in the development of the first chemotherapies and then described what became known as the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale, which quantified a patient's ability to withstand chemotherapy and became a standard tool in choosing cancer treatments. Karnofsky died of lung cancer in 1969.
Bunn's career in lung cancer research includes more than 320 peer-reviewed articles, 200 reviews and 90 book chapters. He has been principal investigator on many national and local clinical trials and is the principal investigator on the NCI's CU Cancer Center SPORE grant in lung cancer, designed to speed the progress of new treatments from basic research to clinical use. Bunn served as ASCO President from 2002 to 2003, as President and CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, Chairman of the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee, and is the founding Director of the CU Cancer Center.
He has focused on creating insights from lung cancer biology to inform the development of targeted treatments. This has included pioneering studies of lung cancer cells exploring their genetic and genomic vulnerabilities. Understanding these vulnerabilities has driven a paradigm shift in lung cancer treatment, from exclusively chemotherapy/radiation to targeted treatments that exploit the specific genetic changes that make a cancer unique.
Bunn's career represents the branch of cancer medicine that has chosen to prioritize the science of the disease. Now the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture recognizes the impact of this approach on patients' lives.
Ann Schwartz, PhD, of Karmanos Cancer Institute Elected to International Lung Cancer Consortium Steering Committee
Ann G. Schwartz, PhD, MPH, Deputy Center Director and Executive Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine, was recently elected to a 3-year term on the International Lung Cancer Consortium's Steering Committee (ILCCO).
Established in 2004, ILCCO is a group of lung cancer researchers from across the globe that bring their expertise with the aim of sharing comparable data from ongoing lung cancer case-control and cohort studies from different geographical areas and ethnicities. The overall objectives are to achieve greater understanding of lung cancer, especially for subgroup analyses, such as early onset lung cancer cases, non-smokers or patients with tumors of rare histology; reduce duplication of research efforts; and replicate novel findings.
Schwartz also serves as Director for the Metropolitan Detroit Cancer Surveillance System (the Detroit SEER Program) and has more than 25 years of experience conducting case-control and family-based studies related to the genetics underlying cancer. These studies have primarily focused on familial aggregation of lung cancer, producing the first estimates of lung cancer risk to relatives of African Americans, and lung cancer genetics.
Her most current grant explores inflammatory pathway genes, COPD, and lung cancer. In addition to lung cancer, Schwartz has studied other cancers including breast, colon, prostate, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer. Her research focuses on health disparities.
In addition to her active participation in ILCCO, Schwartz is involved in the Genetic Epidemiology of Lung Cancer Consortium, and serves on the External Advisory Boards for three Specialized Programs of Research Excellence Grants and four National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
Lane R. Rosen, MD, Receives 2016 LSU Shreveport Distinguished Alumni Award
Lane R. Rosen, MD, Medical Director, Radiation Oncology, Willis-Knighton Health System, Bossier City, La., was honored with the 2016 LSU Shreveport Distinguished Alumni Award.
A Shreveport native, Rosen attended the University of Texas at Austin for 3 years before returning to Shreveport and graduating from LSU Shreveport with a BS in Biology in 1989. Rosen attended LSU Medical School in Shreveport where he twice served as the Student Government President and received the Patty Van Hook Memorial Award for Outstanding Leadership in Medicine. During medical school, Rosen was also appointed by Governor Buddy Roemer to the LSU Board of Supervisors, and later by Governor Edwin Edwards to the State of Louisiana Board of Regents.
In 1997, Rosen was named Medical Director of the growing Willis-Knighton Radiation Oncology Department. During his subsequent 19-year directorship, he has overseen the department's transformation from a local, to a national, and now international leader in advanced cancer care.
With the support of his excellent team at Willis-Knighton, Rosen has pioneered advanced radiation oncology technologies. He was the first physician in the world to deliver TomoTherapy body radiosurgery and the first oncologist to ever treat a patient with image-guided intensity modulated proton Therapy on a compact proton unit.
Rosen is also an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine through Feist-Weiller Cancer Center and the Department of Gynecology and Radiology at LSU Medical School in Shreveport where he also serves on the admissions committee. Rosen was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha for his accomplishments.
He has received the Susan G. Komen Local Hero Award, 2003 American Cancer Society Cancer Awareness Award, 2005 P.R.I.D.E. Award by the Shreveport-Bossier Tourist Bureau, 2009 LSU Shreveport Circle of Excellence Alumni Achievement Award, and numerous selections as a Top Physician in Shreveport and Louisiana through SB Magazine and Louisiana Life Magazine.
Rosen is involved in numerous educational endeavors with medical students and fellows, and visiting physicians. He and his group have welcomed international visitors from around the world interested in proton therapy, TomoTherapy, and brachytherapy.
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