Cancer Clinical Trials Office Blog

I am pleased to announce that effective immediately Joel Neal, MD has been named the new Medical Director for the Cancer Clinical Trials Office of the Stanford Cancer Institute (SCI).  This leadership role provides critical oversight for day-to-day operations of the cancer clinical research enterprise, including ensuring the SCI’s clinical research infrastructure is aligned to support clinical research strategic goals and ensuring that CCTO meets the NCI requirements of the Clinical Protocol and Data Management (CPDM) functions for the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG).  I am grateful to Joel for his willingness to take on this new leadership responsibility.  I would also like to thank Heather Wakelee, MD who has served in this position since 2013 and has been elevated to become the new Deputy Director of the SCI.  Please join me in congratulating both Joel and Heather.

Happy New Year Everyone! For our first CCTO Book Club Meeting of 2021, we will be reading the New York Times Bestseller, “Little Fires Everywhere,” by Celeste Ng.

Please download, borrow, or rent a copy from your local library or purchase a new version at your favorite bookstore.

We will meet February 5^th, 2021 from 11:30am-12:00pm. To access the meeting click here and enter the password 738038.

Bring a snack or beverage to the meeting to discuss the book. If you have not finished reading by February, please feel free to join us anyway!  

Important Message from Robert A. Harrington, MD

Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor

Chair, Department of Medicine

I’m very pleased to announce the appointment of two Division Chiefs. David Miklos has agreed to accept the role of Division Chief, Bone and Marrow Transplantation; and Heather Wakelee has agreed to accept the position of Division Chief, Oncology. Heather also assumes the role of Deputy Director, Stanford Cancer Institute. I am grateful to both for taking on these positions at a challenging time for our department and Stanford Medicine. Please join me in welcoming them to these roles.

David Miklos, MD, PhD received both his MD degree and his PhD in Genetics from Yale.  He completed internship and residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in Hem-Onc at Dana Farber.  Dr. Miklos joined the Stanford faculty in 2004. His laboratory research discovered allogeneic B lymphocytes as a pathogenic mechanism in chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD), pioneered high-throughput DNA lymphoid measurement of residual disease (MRD), and established the clinical utility of CAR-T therapies in Lymphoma. He has led 7 Investigator initiated trials and 5 industry sponsored studies with Site PI responsibilities in multiple others. His laboratory research supported anti-B cell therapy for the management of cGVHD and he developed and led the pivotal study of Bruton Tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor Ibrutinib for patients with cGVHD resulting in the only FDA approved cGVHD therapy. He currently leads the randomized controlled trial testing Ibrutinib-v-placebo in patients with new onset cGVHD. He served as the Medical Director for Stanford Cellular Therapeutics and Transplantation Laboratory from 2011 to 2016, and since 2016 has been Clinical Director of Cancer Cell Therapy at Stanford.  He has served in the Associate Chief role for BMT since April 2020.  David will be only the third chief in the more than 30 year history of the program.  I know under Dr. Miklos’ leadership the division’s tradition of innovation and singular devotion to improving patient outcomes will continue.  

Heather Wakelee, MD received her MD from Johns Hopkins and completed her Internal Medicine residency here at Stanford, where she also served as Chief Resident; she completed her Fellowship in Oncology here as well.   Dr. Wakelee joined the faculty in 2003.  She was promoted to Professor in 2017, and has served as interim division chief in Oncology since April 2020.  Heather specializes in the treatment of lung cancer, thymoma and mesothelioma. She is the physician lead for the thoracic malignancies clinical research group and is the principal investigator on numerous clinical trials.  Dr. Wakelee is the faculty director of the Stanford Clinical Trials office and is the lead investigator for ECOG-ACRIN clinical trials group at Stanford.  She is active in many national and international organizations related to lung cancer including executive leadership roles in the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).  With her appointment as Division Chief, Heather has also been appointed Deputy Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute and will report to Director, Dr. Steve Artandi in that role.  I look forward to Dr. Wakelee’s leadership and am inspired by her vision for Oncology.

I also want to thank Dr. Rob Negrin for his service, commitment, and excellent leadership in BMT over the last 20 years.  I know that we will have some time to celebrate Rob after his sabbatical (and hopefully after the pandemic).  Please join me in thanking Dr. Negrin and welcoming Dr. Miklos and Dr. Wakelee to their roles.