Newswise — The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) supports President Biden’s nomination of W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC, as the next director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She will be the NCI’s 17th director and only the second woman to hold this position, following Monica Bertagnolli, MD, who became director of the National Institutes of Health earlier this month.
“Dr. Rathmell’s background in cancer research and institutional leadership will be a great benefit to AACI’s members as well as patients with cancer and the wider oncology community,” said AACI Executive Director Jennifer W. Pegher.
Dr. Rathmell is the Hugh Jackson Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). She joined VUMC in 2015 as director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology. Her cancer research has focused on the underlying molecular drivers of kidney tumors, aiming to detect cancers earlier and improve treatment based on biomarker approaches to defining drivers of the cancer phenotype.
As an association representing over 100 leading academic cancer centers in the U.S. and Canada, AACI and NCI have maintained a longstanding relationship.
“We look forward to continued collaboration in support of our shared goals of accelerating scientific progress and promoting health equity, and we are eager to host Dr. Rathmell at AACI’s annual meeting next year,” Pegher said.
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The Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI) represents over 100 premier academic and freestanding cancer centers in the United States and Canada. AACI is accelerating progress against cancer by enhancing the impact of academic cancer centers and promoting cancer health equity. For more information, please visit aaci-cancer.org.
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