CLEVELAND – Rosalie and Morton A. Cohen have contributed $1.5 million to University Hospitals to establish the first chair in lung cancer. The Cohens’ gift honors Nathan Levitan, MD, Chief Medical Officer of University Hospitals and lung cancer expert. Renowned lung cancer researcher and physician, Afshin Dowlati, MD, Co-Leader, Developmental Therapeutics Program and Director, Thoracic Oncology at the UH Ireland Cancer Center will be the first chairholder.
Rosalie Cohen, an 18-year cancer survivor and longtime patient of Dr. Levitan, decided to establish this Chair along with her husband, Morton, in honor of her physician and gratitude for her cancer care at the Ireland Cancer Center. “The care I have received from Dr. Levitan and the entire Ireland Cancer Center staff has been outstanding,” she says. “I am so grateful to the entire lung cancer team for their personalized care.”
Dr. Levitan has been on staff at University Hospitals since 1991 and is highly esteemed for his expertise in lung cancer. In addition to his medical degree from Tufts University, he earned an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. Before assuming his current position, he was director of Clinical Cancer programs for the Ireland Cancer Center.
“The establishment of the Cohen Chair in my honor is of great significance to me both personally and professionally,” says Dr. Levitan, who also is Professor of Medicine at Case Western University (CWRU). “There is no thoracic oncology physician/researcher I would rather have fill this Chair than Afshin Dowlati. Since joining the Ireland Cancer Center, he has built the lung cancer program into one of the best in the nation. It is one of the crown jewels of the Ireland Cancer Center and is known worldwide for its exemplary clinical care and cutting edge research.”
Dr. Dowlati, who also is Associate Professor of Medicine at CWRU, joined the Ireland Cancer Center in 2000 and leads the multidisciplinary lung cancer team comprised of oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, nurses, psychiatrists, social workers and dieticians. He earned his MD and completed a residency at the University of Liege, School of Medicine in Belgium. He completed his hematology/medical oncology fellowship at CWRU. “I am honored to hold this new Chair and grateful to the Cohens for their commitment to advancing our battle against lung cancer,” says Dr. Dowlati.
His in-depth lung cancer research has made headlines and changed the standard of care for advanced lung cancer. He was part of the group that presented significant findings in 2005 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that a novel drug can produce improved survival rates for patients with advanced, non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. The following year, Dr. Dowlati took this research one step further and presented findings at ASCO about a promising new biomarker that may be used to predict the survival of patients with lung cancer and their response to this new drug and other treatments.
On the clinical side, Dr. Dowlati has built the Ireland Cancer Center lung program into one of the premier programs in the country. Over the last three years, he and his colleagues have published extensively and ICC is one of few sites with four medical oncologists dedicated to lung cancer research and treatment. The program has consistently been among the top sites to accrue patients to lung cancer clinical trials run by the nationwide Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.
“Dr. Dowlati embodies the most outstanding qualities of a physician scientist,” says Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the Ireland Cancer Center and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. “As Co-Leader of Developmental Therapeutics, he provides an excellent role model for the transfer of discovery to new patient treatments while being an exemplary physician. Dr. Dowlati is further strengthening our national reputation in cancer expertise at the Ireland Cancer Center. He is truly a rising star in the field of lung cancer and making a difference in the fight against this devastating disease.”
Lung cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in this country. An estimated 163,510 deaths from lung cancer occurred in 2005, accounting for about 29 percent of all cancer-related deaths in the nation. Conversely, it is one of the least funded areas of cancer research. For example, Congress funds cancer research funds at the Department of Defense (DOD). From 1992 – 2004, DOD funding for breast cancer research totaled $1.66 billion and prostate cancer research totaled $565 million from 1997 to 2004. From 1992 – 2004, lung cancer research received only $33 million.
“I’m delighted that the Cohen family holds Dr. Levitan, University Hospitals and the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in such high regard, and am extremely grateful that they have chosen to provide the funding for the new chair in lung cancer,” said Pamela B. Davis, M.D., Ph.D., Dean of the School of Medicine. “Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer, taking the lives of more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and pancreatic cancers combined. The historic underfunding of lung cancer research has kept its survival rate almost as low as it was in the early 1970s. That is unacceptable. We need to continue to fund prolific researchers like Dr. Dowlati and his distinguished colleagues at UHCMC and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine to keep up the fight against this terrible disease.”
“We are pleased to have a physician of Dr. Dowlati’s caliber lead our distinguished lung cancer program and hold the Cohen Chair,” says Fred C. Rothstein, MD, President of University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “As our health system makes a major investment in cancer through our Vision 2010 strategic plan, which includes construction of a 120-bed free-standing cancer hospital, we are excited about the direction of lung cancer research and treatment under his leadership.”