We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Laura Dawson, Dr. Lisa Kachnic and Dr. William Cance, who are editorial board members of Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology, have been elected to the new leadership positions at prestigious organizations.
Dr. Laura Dawson, chosen as American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) President-elect
Laura Dawson, MD, will begin her term as President-elect in September during American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) 61st Annual Meeting in Chicago. Dr. Dawson will serve a one-year term as President-elect, followed by a single-year term as President, then one as Chair of the ASTRO Board.
Dr. Dawson leads a multi-disciplinary team of cancer specialists in upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto and is a professor of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto. She also directs the palliative radiation oncology program and has led numerous phase I, II and III trials, including trials that focused on the use of personalized stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for patients with liver cancer, who historically were not candidates for radiation therapy.
Dr. Dawson has an extensive record of service to ASTRO and the field. She previously served on the ASTRO Board as Chair of the Education Council. A leading expert in GI cancers, she recently chaired the steering committee of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium co-sponsored by ASTRO.
In her tenure as President-elect and eventual Chair of ASTRO, Dr. Dawson plans to address key challenges facing both radiation oncology and the larger house of medicine, including physician burnout, restrictive prior authorization practices and workforce diversity.
Dr. Lisa Kachnic, joins Columbia University as Chair of Radiation Oncology
Lisa Kachnic, MD, one of the nation’s leading radiation oncologists and a pioneer of new approaches to optimize the effectiveness of radiation therapy, has been named chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and chief of the radiation oncology service at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, effective September 1, 2019. She will also serve as associate director for Cancer Network Strategy in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Kachnic is Scientific Committee of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). She was the chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
Dr. William Cance has been appointed interim director of University of Arizona Cancer Center
William Cance, MD, Deputy Director of the University of Arizona (UA) Cancer Center in Phoenix has been appointed Interim Director of the UA Cancer Center. Dr. Cance, who joined the UA in October 2016, is also Professor in the Departments of Interdisciplinary Oncology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Surgery in the UA Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy–Phoenix.
As Interim Director, Dr. Cance will oversee all clinical operations and research for the UA Cancer Center and will have a primary leadership role in the UA Cancer Center’s September 2020 submission for renewal of its 5-year Cancer Center Support Grant through the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The UA Cancer Center is among 49 NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation and is the only one based in Arizona. The UA Cancer Center first received Comprehensive Cancer Center status in 1990.
Reference
- https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/lisa-kachnic-md-joins-columbia-university-chair-radiation-oncology.
- https://deptmedicine.arizona.edu/news/2019/william-cance-md-named-interim-director-ua-cancer-center.
- https://www.astro.org/News-and-Publications/News-and-Media-Center/News-Releases/2019/Laura-Dawson,-MD,-FASTRO,-chosen-as-American-Socie.