The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center appoints interim director

Raphael Pollock, MD, PhD, has been appointed interim director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Pollock, a member of Ohio State’s surgery faculty since 2013, is an internationally recognized cancer surgeon and has more than 3 decades of experience as a research scientist.

He assumed the interim role with final approval pending from NCI. Ohio State is preparing for renewal of its NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers grant in 2020.

He has held several leadership roles at the institution, including chief of the division of surgical oncology, vice chair for clinical affairs in the department of surgery, director of the sarcoma research laboratory, surgeon-in-chief for the cancer center, and surgeon-in-chief for The Ohio State University Health Care System.

“Dr. Pollock has served with distinction in each of these vital positions,” Bruce A. McPheron, executive vice president and provost, said in a press release. “In this new role, he will help us continue to advance academic health care — and define what it means to be a 21st century flagship public research university.”

Pollock succeeds Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, who served as director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center for 14 years.

“[Caligiuri] drove the cancer center to national recognition culminating in The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center being the first matrix cancer center in the United States to be rated exceptional and achieve a perfect evaluation score of 10 from the NCI,” McPheron said in the release. “We congratulate him on the outstanding success of the [cancer center] to date and look forward to continuing the momentum in the coming years.

Caligiuri will continue to serve as CEO of Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.