Spotlighting the Superpowers of Science
Read our 2022 Annual Report
Join me to celebrate the incredible accomplishments of our cancer research community at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC). While 2022 has been a transitional year for us, we continue to recognize that the power of our consortium comprehensive cancer center lies in pushing each discovery toward patient and community impact, linking students to our training programs to enhance greater awareness of and desire to participate in the field, and generating support for our research programs that sustain the work of membership from translational science to clinical benefit.
Our investigator teams continue to make paradigm-shifting discoveries across our three consortium sites—Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals. We move these discoveries into early-phase clinical trials and prevention studies in the community. And, we even license our efforts to commercial entities, enabling larger-scale clinical evaluation. As the meeting ground for new concepts, we continue efforts to spawn multi-investigator grants and maintain a spectacular therapeutic home-grown pipeline.
Inside this report, you will find evidence of leading-edge discoveries in clinical trials that prolong—and often save—the lives of people whose cancer diagnoses would have been immediately fatal a few years ago. You will see a concentrated effort in cancer training, which has led to a record-breaking number of applicants for our training programs, including engaging over 80 Cleveland Metropolitan School District students in cancer education programs.
I am excited to announce that, after an intense year-long search, our institutional leaders selected Gary Schwartz, MD, an internationally recognized expert in early-phase clinical investigation of sarcomas and melanoma, as Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Director. I will continue to fully focus on my duties as Dean of the CWRU School of Medicine.
There are many times I have been proud to represent Case CCC during my directorship. However, as I reflect on the past and look toward our future renewal process, the stand-out moment is being the first cancer center in the country to be recognized with a two-year merit extension of our Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)—a recognition reserved for the top centers in the country. This vote of confidence in our consortium, talented center members, staff, and, above all, our advanced research and translational capabilities, provides an added impetus to our campaign against cancer.
Stan Gerson, MD
Director
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center