Giants of Cancer Care Inductee Announced as Next ASCO President

Everett E. Vokes, MD

Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, who is a Giants of Cancer Care^® recipient for Head and Neck Cancer, has been named the next president of ASCO for the 2021 to 2022 term.

Additionally, Vokes, who is the John E. Ultmann Professor, chair of the Department of Medicine, and physician-in-chief at the University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences, will take office as president-elect during the 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting in June.

“It is a deep honor and privilege to be named President-Elect of ASCO, serving our members all over the globe who are working to conquer cancer,” Vokes stated in a press release. “As we usher in the next decade of the 21st century, I look forward to helping ASCO build on its work to support cancer research, nurture a new generation of scientists, and protect oncology practice health.”

Moreover, Vokes pioneered research demonstrating that intensive treatment of chemotherapy combined with radiation can control locally advanced head and neck cancer and can improve survival outcomes. Vokes was inducted as a Giants of Cancer Care^® recipient in 2013.

Prior to his upcoming leadership role with ASCO, Vokes served as an elected member of the ASCO Nominating Committee, and also on the Board of Directors from 2009 to 2012.

Vokes is also a former leader of the Respiratory Committee of the Alliance, which is formerly known as the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, and is a past chair of the Annual Meeting Education Committee, Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee, and is a member of the Conquer Cancer Development and Fundraising Committee as well as the Cancer.Net Editorial Board. He has also served on the editorial boards of several journals.

Beyond Vokes, 4 new members were also elected to the ASCO Board of Directors and Nominating Committee, including:

• Enrique Soto Pérez de Celis, MD, Msc, who is a geriatric oncologist and researcher in the Department of Geriatrics at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán in Mexico City;
• Tara O. Henderson, MD, MPH, FASCO, an associate professor of pediatrics, director of the Childhood Cancer Survivor Center at the University of Chicago, and director of Survivorship for the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center;
• Lisa A. Carey, MD, FASCO, chief of Hematology/Oncology, associate director of Clinical Sciences, and the Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and physician-in-chief of the NC Cancer Hospital;
• Elizabeth R. Plimack, MD, MS, chief of the Division of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, professor of medical oncology and the director of Genitourinary Clinical Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Two new members have been added to the ASCO Nominating Committee and will each serve 3-year terms. These include: Beverly S. Mitchell, MD, a hematologist and oncologist, and George E. Becker Professor of Medicine at Stanford Cancer Institute; and Jordan D. Berlin, MD, FASCO, the associate director for Clinical Research, an Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, and a professor of medicine (hematology/oncology) at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO, Elected ASCO President for 2021-2022 Term [news release]. American Society for Clinical Oncology. Published December 17, 2019. https://bit.ly/2Md5mHf. Accessed December 19, 2020.