Names & News

Posted: December 2018 Fred R. Hirsch, MD, resigned from his position of IASLC CEO at the end of October and has joined Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City as the executive director for the Clinical Lung Cancer Institute and Endowed Professor at the Icahn Medical School, Mount Sinai, where he will be facilitating basic…

Posted: December 2018 James P. Allison, PhD, and Tasuku Honjo, PhD, MD, were jointly awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their breakthrough accomplishments in cancer immunotherapy, leading to creation of a new highly effective and rapidly developing class of drugs, the immune checkpoint inhibitors, which have recently transformed the therapeutic landscape…

Posted: October 2018 Antoinette Wozniak, MD, moved to Hillman Cancer Center at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in September 2018, where she is now a professor of medicine, leader of the Lung Cancer Disease Team, and associate director of clinical research. She was previously with the Karmanos Cancer Institute for more than 25 years.

Posted: October 2018 Raymond Osarogiagbon, MBBS, FACP, has been selected as a member-elect to the Fleischner Society. Founded in 1969, the Fleischner Society is a collegial, multidisciplinary international thoracic imaging society dedicated to promoting education and research directed to innovative patient care. Dr. Osarogiagbon is director of the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program at the Baptist…

Posted: October 2018 James D. Cox, MD, a leader in the radiation oncology community and pioneer of proton therapy, passed away in August, just a month after his 80th birthday. Dr. Cox’s career path was peppered with illustrious mentors, directorships, society accolades, hundreds of peer-reviewed article publications, and an editorship of almost 2 decades. A…

Posted: October 2018 Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, is the recipient of the 2018 Addario Lectureship Award presented by The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation for her groundbreaking clinical research in immunotherapy. Dr. Papadimitrakopoulou is the Jay and Lori Eisenberg Distinguished Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she…

Posted: October 2018 David J. Sugarbaker, MD, an internationally known pioneer in the surgical management of malignant pleural mesothelioma and of complex thoracic cancers, passed away in August 2018 at the age of 66. Throughout his lifetime, Dr. Sugarbaker developed methods to perform intraoperative heated chemotherapy and refined extrapleural pneumonectomy techniques. Dr. Sugarbaker graduated top…

Posted: October 2018 After 11 years at NYU Langone Health, Jessica S. Donington, MD, MSCR, has moved to the University of Chicago Medicine as professor of surgery and chief of the Section of Thoracic Surgery. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Donington is an avid researcher and respected leader in her field. Her research…

Posted: August 2018 Avrum Spira, MD, has been named global head of the new Lung Cancer Initiative within Johnson & Johnson, which will be based at Boston University’s Medical Campus. This initiative is a 5-year research alliance with Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC; it aims to develop biomarker-based early-screening tests for lung cancer. Dr. Spira…

Posted: August 2018 As of April 2018, Christian Rolfo, MD, PhD, MBA, is the director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology and the Early Clinical Trials at the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) and professor in medicine at the University of Marlyland School of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Rolfo was director…