(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- David Gandara, professor of medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and director of clinical research at UC Davis Cancer Center, has been elected secretary/treasurer and appointed to the board of directors of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the world's leading professional organization representing physicians who treat people with cancer.

A prominent lung cancer specialist, Gandara chairs the Lung Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, a National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trials cooperative research group comprising 283 institutions in the United States and Canada. Under his leadership, UC Davis for the past two years in a row ranked first among the 283 SWOG sites in the number of patients enrolled in clinical trials.

He also has broad expertise in developing new anti-cancer therapies. He is the co-leader of the UC Davis Cancer Therapeutics Program and principal investigator for an NCI-sponsored Early Therapeutics Award evaluating new molecular targeted agents for cancer treatment.

Gandara received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1973, completed his internal medicine training at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., and his hematology and oncology fellowship at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco in 1978.

Among his many honors, Gandara is a recipient of the 1998 Oettinger Memorial Award for lung cancer research. He has been named one of America's best medical oncologists for lung cancer by Good Housekeeping magazine and one of America's top doctors by the Connolly Guide.

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Media Contact:
Claudia Morain, UC Davis Cancer Center: (916) 734-9023
E-mail: cmmorain@ucdavis.ed

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UC Davis Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated
center between San Francisco and Portland, Ore., is a program of the UC
Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center.

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