Charles L. Sawyers, MD, Chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, was elected President-Elect of the American Association for Cancer Research, and will serve as President for the 2013-14 term. The current President, succeeding Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH, as of the Annual Meeting earlier this month, is Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, Director of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
UC Davis Cancer Center has earned a "comprehensive" designation form the National Cancer Institute and has been renamed UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, becoming the 41st such cancer center. Ralph deVere White, MB, BCh, BAO, is the center's Director, Distinguished Professor in Urology, and Associate Dean for Cancer Programs. UC Davis was established in 1991, and became an NCI-Designated Center in 2002.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded Patrick C. Walsh, MD, University Distinguished Service Professor of Urology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Francis Armory Prize, which recognizes major advances in reproductive biology and medical care, honoring him for developing and refining an anatomic approach to radical prostatectomy that reduces serious side effects of the surgery. He and his coworkers were also the first to describe the 5 alpha-reductase enzyme deficiency, develop an experimental technique for the induction of benign prostatic hyperplasia, demonstrate the influence of reversible androgen deprivation on BPH, and characterize hereditary prostate cancer.
Zhen-Yi Wang, MD, and Zhu Chen, PhD, have been awarded the Szent Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the National Foundation for Cancer Research. Their work led to a new therapeutic approach to acute promyelocytic leukemia that combines traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine, improving five-year disease-free survival rates for APL patients from 25 to 95 percent.
Wang and Chen are both Professors at the Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Wang is also Honorary Director of the Shanghai Institute of Haematology, and Chen is also the current Minister of Health of the People's Republic of China.
Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Otolaryngology, and the Jeg Coughlin Chair of Cancer Research at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Care Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, has received the AACR Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research for her research on the role of HPV in head and neck cancers.
The AACR has recognized Yibin Kang, PhD, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, with the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. The award recognizes his research defining the biological mechanisms that govern the ability of breast cancer cells to migrate and colonize various locations throughout the body, particularly on the JAG1 or "Jagged1" protein, furthering the molecular understanding of cancer metastasis.
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation has elected three new members to its Board of Directors: designer Tory Burch, Ed Brennan, Chairman and CEO of the duty-free travel retailer DFS Group L.P., who will serve as members, and Larry Norton, MD, Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Medical Director of MSKCC's Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center, who will serve as an ex officio member and will also continue to serve as Scientific Director of BCRF's Executive Board of Scientific Advisors.
AACR CEO Margaret Foti, PhD, has received Research!America's Raymond and Beverly Sackler Award for Sustained National Leadership, for her advocacy for federal funding for cancer research and biomedical science.
Arthur Caplan, PhD, is leaving the University of Pennsylvania to join NYU Langone Medical Center on July 1, as Director of the new Division of Medical Ethics in the Department of Population Health.
David Solomon, MD, a PhD candidate at Georgetown University School of Medicine, has been awarded the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research has identified tumor-suppressor genes in glioblastoma multiforme, identified a commonly mutated cancer gene as a direct cause of aneuploidy, and advanced a small molecule kinase inhibitor into clinical trials for recurrent glioblastoma.
A scientific symposium was held March 16 to honor the late Jonathan Widom, PhD, former William Deering Professor of Molecular Biosciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and Principal Investigator of Northwestern's Physical Sciences-Oncology Center, and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Symposium speakers reflected on the impact of his work on physical biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology, and the molecular basis of diseases, including cancer.
Nancy Hopkins, PhD, Professor of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been hono`red with the Margaret L. Kripke Legend Award for Promotion of Women in Cancer Medicine and Cancer Science by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Janis and Michael Bloch of Bexley, Ohio, have pledged to commit $5 million toward construction of the new Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, part of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center's expansion project. The donation will support a rooftop garden, an executive suite at the hospital, additional public spaces for patients, and private spaces for meetings.
The couple and Janis Bloch's siblings have spearheaded fundraising efforts for the cancer center since 1982 when they started a golf tournament in honor of their late father, which has raised some $4.1 million to date. She also helped start the "Up on the Roof" event to support the university's cancer research efforts, which after 19 years has provided more than $6 million in funding.
MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando has announced that Garrett Riggs, MD, will join the Medical Oncology Department in the Brain and Spine Tumor Program, working on the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive effects of cancer and cancer therapy.
Susan Goodin, PharmD, Associate Director of Clinical Trials and Therapeutics at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Professor of Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood John Medical School, has received the Award of Excellence from the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association.
Columbia Doctors Eastside and Columbia University Medical Center has opened the Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, to consist of some 25 staff to focus on blood-related malignancies under the direction of Owen A. O'Connor, MD, PHD.
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