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Raghavan, Sweetenham named HemOnc Today’s Chief Medical Editors
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Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FACP, FRACP, FASCO, and John Sweetenham, MD, FRCP, FACP, have been named Chief Medical Editors of HemOnc Today.
Raghavan, president of Levine Cancer Institute at Carolinas HealthCare System, will serve as Chief Medical Editor, Oncology. Sweetenham, senior director of clinical affairs and executive medical director at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, will serve as Chief Medical Editor, Hematology.
“We are pleased that Drs. Raghavan and Sweetenham have joined HemOnc Today as Chief Medical Editors. Their leadership, expertise and vision will ensure that HemOnc Today will remain the independent voice in hematology and oncology,” said Joan-Marie Stiglich, ELS, Chief Content Officer of SLACK Incorporated, the publisher of HemOnc Today.
Raghavan and Sweetenham succeed former Chief Medical Editor Harry S. Jacob, MD, FRCPath(Hon), and Associate Medical Editor Joseph R. Bertino, MD, who led HemOnc Today’s editorial board since the publication’s inception in March 2000.
Derek Raghavan
Raghavan, an internationally renowned cancer researcher and medical oncologist, joined HemOnc Today’s Editorial Board in May 2011. During his 3 years at Levine Cancer Institute, he has spearheaded efforts to eliminate natural barriers to top-quality care, including access, cultural barriers, and distance to clinical and research sites.
Raghavan previously served concurrent appointments as chairman and director of Taussig Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic, and as the M. Frank and Margaret Domiter Rudy Institute distinguished chair in translational cancer research. He also held leadership positions at the University of Southern California and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Trained in medicine and oncology at the University of Sydney in Australia, Raghavan earned a PhD in experimental pathology from the University of London/Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, and secured a research Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Sydney for his research on bladder cancer.
Raghavan’s research and clinical interests are focused on genitourinary cancer, anticancer drug discovery and development, and cancer in the elderly. He is credited as one of the early innovators in the development of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for invasive bladder cancer, was one of the leaders in the development of gemcitabine for advanced bladder cancer, and is an authority on the management of testicular and prostate cancer.
He has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed professional journals, edited nine textbooks and served as principal investigator for more than a dozen major research grants. He has served as chair of the Veterans Administration Merit Review Board in Oncology and the NCI Cancer Clinical Investigations Review Committee.
“The opportunity to partner with John Sweetenham in providing medical editorial leadership to HemOnc Today is exciting, and will allow us to exercise our interest in the interplay of clinical practice and bench research, while also thinking carefully and strategically about cost and value in health care,” Raghavan said. “HemOnc Today is a very influential broadsheet, which isn’t tied to the agendas of professional societies, and it will give medical opinion leaders a chance to take a position that is evidence- and/or logic- based, and stand up for improved care and outcomes, and help point to the right path in defining value and strategic pathways in future cancer care.”
John Sweetenham
Sweetenham, who joined Huntsman Cancer Institute in April 2013, is an internationally recognized expert in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. His central research interest is lymphoma and the use of stem cell transplantation.
He previously served as medical director at UC San Diego Nevada Cancer Institute. He also has held leadership positions at Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center, the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado.
Sweetenham trained in medicine at the St. Bartholomew and Royal London School of Medicine. He completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, where he was subsequently a faculty member and leader of the lymphoma and transplant programs. He completed his internship at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and his residency at Royal United Hospital in Bath, UK.
Sweetenham — former chairman of the Clinical Trials Committee of Leukemia and Lymphoma Research, UK — has published more than 200 original articles, chapters and books. He previously served as a core committee member of the ECOG Lymphoma Committee and ECOG national principal investigator for studies in Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“As an oncologist/hematologist, I feel particularly energized to be working in a field in which new discoveries and new treatment approaches are emerging at an unprecedented rate,” Sweetenham said. “These advances, along with the increasing need for quality, accountability and evidence of effectiveness in the health care system, pose challenges for all of us to stay current in the scientific, clinical and care-delivery issues we face every day. I am excited to be joining Derek Raghavan to ensure that HemOnc Today is a current, evidence-driven and impartial source of information and opinion for oncologists and hematologists on all aspects of their practice.”