Who: Dr. Clifford Hudis, 57
New role: CEO of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, effective June 27. He succeeds Dr. Allen Lichter, 70, who is retiring after 10 years in the top job.
Background: ASCO member for more than 20 years and president from 2013 to 2014. Hudis is VP for government relations, chief advocacy officer and chief of breast medical service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Driving collaboration: The key to cancer treatment advancements is encouraging researchers to collaborate and share data, both leaders say. “Cancer is not going to be solved by a single scientist in a single laboratory, it's going to be solved by large aggregators of knowledge,” Lichter said.
Hudis said he will continue to advance Lichter's vision, overseeing ASCO's CancerLinQ program, a “big data” project designed to give physicians the ability to efficiently analyze and compare treatments and outcomes. “(Data sharing) is a tool in medicine we have not taken full advantage of,” he said.
Shooting for the moon: Hudis sees Vice President Joe Biden's National Cancer Moonshot Initiative as an opportunity to inspire new paths to groundbreaking treatments. “When you invest in science in any area, you almost always receive significant gains and insights.”
