Who’s News

Matthew Ringel, MD, and colleagues have received an $11.9 million NCI grant for their research in thyroid cancer. The 5-year grant will fund the group’s work on genetics and signaling pathways in epithelial thyroid cancer. Dr. Ringel is co-director of the thyroid cancer unit at Ohio State University in Columbus.

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation has given its Pioneer Award to Harvey Pass, MD. He is director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and Oncology at the New York University Cancer Institute and Langone Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Pass, who is also professor of cardiothoracic surgery and surgery, discovered osteopontin, an early disease marker of asbestos-related malignancies.

George Moore, MD, PhD, past director of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, died on May 19, 2008, at age 88. He held the position of director at Roswell Park from 1952-1967. Dr. Moore went on to serve as the director of public health research in New York state before moving to Denver where he became the chief of the oncology section at Denver General Hospital. He was also professor of surgery and microbiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, also in Denver.

Fox Chase Cancer Center has named Barbara Burtness, MD, as chief of head and neck oncology. An expert in head and neck, esophageal, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers, Dr. Burtness helped develop cetuximab(Drug information on cetuximab) (Erbitux). She came to the Philadelphia-based cancer center from Yale University Medical Center in New Haven where she served as director of the gastrointestinal oncology unit.

Joseph V. Simone, MD, has been named director of the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center in Gainesville. He also will serve as physician-in-chief of cancer services and as professor in the division of hematology/oncology in the department of pediatrics. Dr. Simone has previously held positions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.

The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa has made two new appointments. Pathologist Lynn Moscinski, MD, is chair of the new department of oncologic sciences at the University of South Florida (USF) Health Sciences Center, an academic partner of Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Moscinski previously held the position of division chief of hematopathology and laboratory medicine at USF. Also, breast surgeon Nazanin Khakpour, MD, has come on board at Moffitt’s Don and Erika Wallace Comprehensive Breast Program. Dr. Khakpour completed a fellowship in breast surgical oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Lapo Alinari, MD, and Serena Kimi Perna, MD, have been awarded $75,000 fellowships by the American Society of Hematology in association with the European Hematology Association. The fellowships are endowed to strengthen international collaboration among scientists. Dr. Alinari, based at Seragnoli Institute of Hematology and Oncology in Bologna, Italy, will research protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) in B-cell transformation at Ohio State University in Columbus, in the lab of John Byrd, MD. Dr. Perna, of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, will study chimeric T cells for Hodgkin’s lymphoma therapy at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, alongside Malcolm Brenner, MD, PhD. Chimeric T cells are artificial T cells constructed from molecules specifically designed to interfere with the growth of malignant cells.

Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council has awarded National Institute of Clinical Studies fellowships to researchers working on cancer detection. Felicity Pool, MD, of Pittwater Radiology, Sydney, has devised a communication system for reporting and classifying breast images. David Hewett, MD, a gastroenterologist at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, has created simulation-based colonoscopy training programs for colon and bowel cancer specialists.