MDNews - Cleveland-Akron-Canton

COVER FEATURE nationally recognized physicians and physician-scientists who are, according to Dr. Levitan, not just cancer specialists, but cancer subspecialists. "The state-of-the-art care that we give hinges on the realization that no one doctor can know everything about all types of cancer because the fi eld is so broad," says Dr. Levitan. "So we have a lot of faculty who are highly specialized and national leaders in specifi c types of cancer." Two of the most recent recruits are Mitch Machtay, MD, and Neal Meropol, MD. Dr. Machtay is a nationally known radiation oncologist who specializes in head and neck cancer, lung cancer and tumors of the central nervous sys- tem. He joined UH last year as chair of Radiation Oncology and the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine Vincent K. Smith Chair in Radiation Oncology. For the past 10 years, Dr. Machtay has served as deputy chair of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, a national clinical cooperative group funded since 1968 by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to increase the survival and improve the quality of life of patients diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Meropol is a medical oncologist who joined UH last year to become UH Seidman Cancer Center's associate director of Clinical Programs and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center's associate director of Clinical Research. He is also chief of the Division of Oncology and Hematology at UH and at CWRU School of Medicine, and the Lester E. Coleman, Jr. Professor of Cancer Research & Therapeutics at CWRU. Nationally, he holds the titles of chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Developmental Therapeutics Committee, chair of the NCI Colon Cancer Task Force and chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Cancer Research. He is also chair of ASCO's Comparative Effectiveness Research task force. "Dr. Meropol is an expert with a national reputation in the areas of gastrointestinal malignancies and the evaluation of new drugs. And in this era of focus on the cost of care, it is noteworthy that he is also an expert in comparative effectiveness research," says Dr. Levitan. "And we have so many more experts — Stan Gerson, who serves on the NCI Board of Scientifi c Advisors which helps guide the nation's effort in cancer discovery and research; Sandy (Sanford) Markowitz, who is a pioneer in colon cancer genetics and discovered a new DNA-based colon cancer screening test that the American Cancer Society approved two years ago because it is three times more effective than a stool blood analysis ... and many, many other physicians who are right here under one roof at UH Seidman Cancer Center." Innovative Technology Also under one roof is a wealth of Inpatient rooms have couches which convert to beds for family overnight stays. 8 | Cleveland-Akron-Canton MD NEWS MDNEWS.COM SPECIAL ISSUE, FALL 2011 advanced technology — perhaps the most ever assembled in a cancer hospital. For diagnostic technology, there are state-of- the-art ultrasounds, CTs, PETs, PET/CTs, MRIs (including an intraoperative 3.0T MRI), and one of the world's fi rst PET/MRI machines. The PET/MRI is part of UH's partnership with equipment manufacturer

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