After losing its top two administrators in the past seven months, the Comprehensive Cancer Center will acquire a new director today when Dr. Ralph Snyderman, chancellor for health affairs, names Dr. Michael Colvin as the center's new leader.
Colvin comes to Duke from the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, where he is currently chief of the division of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. Although he will officially assume the post at Duke July 1, he is already heavily involved in meetings on behalf of the cancer center.
"I am very impressed with his leadership and his understanding of how the Comprehensive Cancer Center fits in with the Duke University Medical Center," Snyderman said Wednesday. "[Colvin] is a team builder and a team planner who will help us build our cancer center from where it is, which is very strong."
Colvin succeeds Dr. Robert Bast, who left the cancer center in July to become chief of medicine at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. In December, former deputy director and acting director of the center, Dr. Bob Bell, left Duke to become vice president of research at Glaxo Inc.
"I look forward to working with the outstanding clinicians at Duke to bring new and more effective treatments to cancer patients," Colvin said in a statement.
Selected from a long list of candidates, Colvin was always the first choice for the position, said Dr. Dirk Iglehart, acting director of the cancer center and professor of surgery.
"He was chosen because he was the best physician/scientist you can find," Iglehart said.
Colvin will have his hands full during his first year at the cancer center. Some of the key issues he will face include developing the cancer center's strategic plan and helping it adjust to a bigger role amidst changes in the health care environment.
In the past, the cancer center has served as an umbrella group to coordinate funding, Iglehart said, but as finances become tighter, the center will be taking on a larger role in patient treatment.
"The real challenge for a person who comes to this institution is how do you negotiate the cancer center through a multifunctional, multi-specialty institution that is trying to serve non-cancer patients just as well as [patients who have cancer]," Iglehart said.
Colvin is well known for his pioneering work with alkylating drugs, a treatment that damages the genetic material that causes cancer cells to replicate. He has focused on how these drugs are metabolized in the body and how to fight resistance mechanisms that reduce their effectiveness.
Many of his colleagues praise his skill at relating to people and handling difficult situations.
"[Colvin] is an excellent listener," said Barbara Rimer, acting deputy director of the cancer center and professor of community and family medicine, who worked with Colvin on a committee of the National Cancer Institute. "He had a real ability [during] on-site visits, which are a very tense situation, to bring humor and maybe even relaxation to a very tight situation."
At Johns Hopkins, he was known for his even-temper and dry sense of humor, said Dr. David Ettinger, associate director of clinical affairs at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.
"He's a consensus builder, and at a time in an institution when there are many fiefdoms, you need someone like that to oversee a big program," Ettinger said. "He's well aware of all the health care problems and the issues related to finances."
Colvin's unique skills as a physician-scientist make him an excellent choice for the post, said Dr. Henry Friedman, a professor in the divisions of hematology-oncology and pediatrics at Duke.
"He's equally comfortable in both the laboratory and the clinic," said Friedman, who has worked with Colvin for more than 15 years, of Colvin's ability to take integrate clinical observations and lab research. "He plays clinic-laboratory ping-pong."
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