Ohio State names interim director of Comprehensive Cancer Center

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron announced today that Dr. Raphael Pollock, a member of Ohio State’s surgery faculty since 2013, has been appointed interim director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Raphael Pollock

Pollock is an internationally renowned cancer surgeon with more than three decades of experience as a research scientist. Since joining Ohio State in 2013, he has served in several important leadership roles, including vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Surgery, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology, director of the Sarcoma Research Laboratory, surgeon-in-chief for the OSUCCC and surgeon-in-chief for The Ohio State University Health Care System.

“Dr. Pollock has served with distinction in each of these vital positions,” McPheron said. “In this new role, he will help us continue to advance academic health care — and define what it means to be a 21st century flagship public research university.”

Pollock has assumed the interim role with final approval pending from the National Cancer Institute – and will focus on the OSUCCC’s continued excellence and impact as Ohio State prepares for renewal of the NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers grant in 2020.

Pollock holds national leadership positions with the American Joint Committee on Cancer and the Sarcoma Foundation of America. He is a member of the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Counselors.

“I'd like to thank Dr. Michael Caligiuri, who served as director of the OSUCCC for 14 years and drove the cancer center to national recognition culminating in the OSUCCC being the first matrix cancer center in the United States to be rated exceptional and achieve a perfect evaluation score of 10 from the NCI,” McPheron said. “We congratulate him on the outstanding success of the OSUCCC to date and look forward to continuing the momentum in the coming years.

“Michael has been planning for this transition from the OSUCCC director role and will continue as the CEO of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.”