Northwestern University cancer center appoints director

Leonidas Platanias, MD, PhD, has been appointed director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Platanias, who served as interim director since January, joined Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2002 as the Lurie Cancer Center’s first deputy director. He also has served as the Jesse, Sara, Andrew, Abigail, Benjamin and Elizabeth Lurie professor of oncology in medicine — hematology/oncology.

“Leon has already contributed greatly to the Lurie Cancer Center, through both his leadership and his scientific achievements,” Eric G. Neilson, MD, vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg dean, said in a press release. “As permanent director, he will continue in that vein, driving the center’s expansion and maintaining its reputation as a premiere venue for research, clinical care and collaboration.”

Platanias will oversee clinical operations in the Lurie Cancer Center, as well as basic science research programs.

“I am very excited about the future of the Lurie Cancer Center and of Northwestern Medicine,” Platanias said in the press release. “We are developing programs that bridge basic science and clinical care and will establish Chicago as a global leader in the delivery of personalized cancer treatment.”

Prior to joining Feinberg, Platanias served as chief of the division of hematology/oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research has focused on signaling pathways in cancer cells and development of therapies that target those pathways to treat malignancies.