2010 Program Committee Chairs and Co-Chairs
H. Kim Lyerly, MD
Program Chair
Dr. Lyerly is the George Barth Geller Professor of Cancer Research and the director of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has been named by his peers as one of North Carolina’s most outstanding clinical physicians. In addition, he is an internationally recognized expert in cancer therapy and cancer immunotherapy and has published nearly 200 scientific articles and has edited 10 textbooks on surgery, cancer immunotherapy, and novel cancer therapies. He serves on the editorial board of 12 scientific journals. In 2008, Dr. Lyerly was appointed to the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) by President George Bush and was named chair on the Cancer Centers sub-committee of the NCAB. Dr. Lyerly is currently the principal investigator of the Cancer Center Core Grant, the Duke Specialized Program in Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in breast cancer, and a program project grant directed toward developing antigen specific immunity in patients with cancer. Dr. Lyerly is a highly sought advisor and currently serves on the external advisory boards of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Michigan Cancer Center, the University of Chicago Cancer Center, the University of Alabama Cancer Center, the Boston University Cancer Center, and the Purdue Cancer Center. He also serves as an advisor to the University of Washington, and Case Western Reserve Clinical and Translational Science Institutes. He is currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation. He has previously served as chairperson of the executive committee of the integration panel of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs in Breast Cancer. He also served on American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Grants Selection Committee, of which he served as chair in 2006. Dr. Lyerly is a member of the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow. He was invited by former North Carolina Governor Michael Easley to serve on the Advisory Commission of the NC State Museum of Natural Sciences. In 2010, Dr. Lyerly was reappointed as a member of the NC Advisory Committee on Cancer Coordination and Control by Governor Bev Perdue.
Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (h.c.)
Program Co-Chair
Dr. Foti is Chief Executive Officer, American Association for Cancer Research; Secretary-Treasurer and Chief Executive Officer, AACR Foundation for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer; and Managing Editor, Cancer Research. At the AACR, Foti progressed through several key management roles in scientific publishing to become CEO in 1982. Foti joined the AACR as an editorial assistant for Cancer Research, the most highly cited cancer journal in the world under the editorship of her first mentor, Michael B. Shimkin, M.D. She was rapidly promoted to the position of managing editor under the editorship of Sidney Weinhouse, Ph.D., and became the youngest managing editor of a major scientific journal in the country. Foti has launched five additional major peer-reviewed journals: Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; and Cancer Prevention Research - all of which contribute more than 26,000 scientific pages to the cancer literature every year. In 2006, the AACR launched CR, a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians and scientists. Among her many professional activities, Foti serves as a board member and is a past president of the National Coalition for Cancer Research. She is also a member of the Melanoma International Foundation board of directors, a member of the executive committee and board of Friends of Cancer Research, a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, a medical advisory board member of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, a council member of the Council of the European Association for Cancer Research, a member of the Wellness Leadership Council, a strategic advisory panel member of the International Union Against Cancer, a scientific advisory board member of the King Hussein Biotechnology and Cancer Institute, and an external advisory board member for the University of Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research and NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award Program. Foti has led the AACR as the scientific partner in the Stand Up To Cancer national initiative.
Allen Lichter, MD
Program Co-Chair
Dr. Lichter is Chief Executive Officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Lichter became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ASCO in October 2006. For the past two decades, Dr. Lichter had served at the University of Michigan, first as Chair and Professor of Radiation Oncology, and subsequently as Dean of the Medical School (1998-2006). Dr. Lichter was named the first Isadore Lampe Professor of Radiation Oncology, an endowed chair at the University. Dr. Lichter was also honored as a Newman Family Professor of Radiation Oncology in 2000. Prior to his tenure at the University of Michigan, Dr. Lichter was the Director of the Radiation Therapy Section of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Radiation Oncology Branch. A Member of ASCO since 1980, Dr. Lichter has assumed many prominent roles in the Society, including President (1998-1999) and Founding Chair of The ASCO Foundation Board. He has served on ASCO’s Board of Directors and as Chair of the Public Issues Committee, Special Awards Selection Committee, and Co-chair of the Fellows Task Force. Dr. Lichter has served multiple terms on ASCO’s Scientific Program Committee as well as on the Nominating, Audit, and Finance Committees, and as an Associate Editor of ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Lichter has also held board positions with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), and the NCI. Dr. Lichter was a co-editor of the textbook Clinical Oncology and several books on breast cancer, and the author of over one-hundred scientific papers. He has served on the editorial boards of Oncology, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics. Dr. Lichter earned a bachelor’s degree (1968) and medical degree (1972) from the University of Michigan. He trained in radiation oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, and later the NCI.
Richard Pazdur, MD
Program Co-Chair
Dr. Richard Pazdur is the Director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research of the United States Food and Drug Administration. This Office was formed in 2005 to consolidate the review of drugs and therapeutic biologics for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer as well as the review of drugs and therapeutic biologics for hematologic diseases and for medical imaging. Dr. Pazdur’s position facilitates coordination of oncology activities across all FDA Centers and ensures an ongoing outreach and collaboration between FDA, the National Cancer Institute, and other cancer-related organizations within and outside of the government. He has a distinguished career in clinical and academic oncology in addition to his experience as a regulatory expert at FDA. A native of Indiana, he obtained his M.D. from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, where he also trained in internal medicine. He was a fellow in oncology at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center at the University of Chicago. Dr. Pazdur has served as a practicing oncologist, researcher, and teacher at Wayne State University, where he was director of the medical oncology fellowship program, and for many years at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, where he was a tenured Professor of Medicine and Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs. He joined FDA in 1999 as the Director of the Division of Oncology Drug Products and was named Director of the Office of Oncology Drug Products in April 2005. He has authored over 160 peer-reviewed papers in the field of oncology, has written chapters for over 30 oncology textbooks, and is the editor of two standard reference oncology texts. Dr. Pazdur is well known in the oncology community as a strong scientific leader who is committed to the care and treatment of patients with cancer. He is a member of many oncology professional societies and has served on numerous local, state, national, and international committees focused on cancer treatment, drug development, patient education, and chemoprevention. Since coming to FDA, Dr. Pazdur has collaborated extensively with the leaders at the National Cancer Institute on many aspects of facilitating sound and rapid product development for cancer treatment and prevention.
James Zwiebel, MD
Program Co-Chair
Dr. Zwiebel is Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch in the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the NCI, where he and his colleagues work with investigators and industry to carry out the clinical development of promising new cancer therapies. He also is the Project Officer for the CTEP Phase II N01 Program, which consists of early clinical trials consortia that evaluate the clinical and biologic effects of NCI-sponsored anticancer agents. Dr. Zwiebel received the MD degree from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency training in internal medicine. Following a clinical fellowship in hematology and oncology at the George Washington University Medical Center and research fellowships at both the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, he continued his laboratory work on cancer gene therapy as a member of the faculty at Lombardi Cancer Center of the Georgetown University Medical Center, where he also practiced hematology and oncology. Dr. Zwiebel is now Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch in the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the NCI, where he and his colleagues work with investigators and industry to bring promising new cancer therapies into the clinic. He also is the Project Officer for the CTEP Phase II N01 Program, which consists of early clinical trials consortia that evaluate the clinical and biologic effects of NCI-sponsored anticancer agents.
Program Committee Members