ONI names four deputy editors to advisory board

Oncology News International has named four deputy editors to its editorial advisory team, Editor-in-Chief Steven Rosen, MD, announced. The new deputy editors represent a spectrum of interests, including genitourinary and breast tumors, surgical oncology, and radiation oncology.

"It's important that Oncology News International readers know that we are drawing our information from top experts in their fields. This team will help provide that assurance," Dr. Rosen said. The new deputy editors are:

Monica Bertagnolli, MD, chief of surgical oncology at Brigham and Women's/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, chair and director of the Taussig Cancer Center of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and chair of the Cancer Division of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Andrew D. Seidman, MD, an attending physician for the Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and professor of medicine, Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Joel Tepper, MD, a radiation oncologist and professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He is a former president and chairman of the board for ASTRO and currently sits on the board of directors for ASCO.

Drs. Raghavan and Seidman were already members of ONI's Editorial Advisory Board, but Drs. Bertagnolli and Tepper are new to the board.

NSAID research

Dr. Bertagnolli graduated from the University of Utah College of Medicine in 1985 and performed her residency and fellowship training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is boarded in surgery.

Her laboratory was the first to document that APC truncation causes a dominant negative effect upon intestinal epithelium, and the first to show in an animal model that NSAIDs block tumor formation and COX2 activity.

Dr. Bertagnolli led a multinational trial showing that the NSAID celecoxib (Celebrex) prevented adenomas in patients at risk for colorectal cancer. This study also found increased cardiovascular complications among celecoxib users, raising a concern for routine use of these drugs for both cancer prevention and arthritis.

Bladder, prostate cancer expert

Dr. Raghavan earned his medical degree from the University of Sydney in 1974 and his doctorate from the University of London in 1984. He has been chair of the NCI Cancer Clinical Investigations Review Committee, Veterans Administration Merit Review Board in Oncology, and ASCO Communications Committee, and is currently chair of ASCO's Diversity of Care Task Force. He has been a member of the NCI Cancer Centers Support Review Committee and the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee.

Dr. Raghavan's research from the 1980s on has shaped our current approach to neoadjuvant chemotherapy for bladder cancer and the investigation of new drugs for prostate cancer.

Taxane studies

Dr. Seidman received his medical degree from the Hahnemann University School of Medicine in 1985 and performed a residency in internal medicine at the Pennsylvania Hospital. He then completed a fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at MSKCC. He is boarded in internal medicine and medical oncology.

Dr. Seidman received a Career Development Award from ASCO for clinical research evaluating the role of the taxanes in breast cancer treatment. His present research focus involves translational clinical trials and correlative science in the management of metastatic breast cancer.

An ASTRO fellow

Dr. Tepper earned his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in 1972 and did his residency and a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is boarded in radiation therapy. His major research interests are gastrointestinal neoplasms, combined modal therapy, and soft tissue sarcomas.

Dr. Tepper is the recent former chair of the Clinical Program Planning Committee for the UNC Health Care System, and for 20 years ending in 2007 was chair of UNC's Department of Radiation Oncology. He was elected an ASTRO fellow in 2006, the inaugural year of the society's fellowship program, and was elected a fellow for the American College of Radiology in 1996.