Kenneth H. Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., a leading breast cancer expert at the
National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., has been named director of
the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer & Allied Diseases and the
UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. The appointment is subject to the approval of
the University of Nebraska Board of Regents at its next meeting.
Dr. Cowan, 51, will assume his new post on Aug. 1. Since completing
his residency training at Texas Southwestern Affiliated Hospitals in Dallas,
Dr. Cowan has spent his entire 21-year career at the NCI. Since 1988, he
has served as chief of the Medical Breast Cancer Section, Medicine Branch,
and serves as a captain in the Public Health Service, which includes physicians
in the National Institutes of Health. In his NCI position, he was responsible
for overseeing a $1 million budget and a 21-person staff. His breast cancer
group included 12 laboratory researchers and a clinical staff of six performing
trials in patients with breast cancer.
“Dr. Cowan is a marvelous recruit for our Medical Center,” said Harold
M. Maurer, M.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center chancellor. “He
fits perfectly into our aim and vision of becoming a world class academic
health sciences center.
“We recently hired an outstanding molecular geneticist in Dr. Richard
Finnell. Now, with Dr. Cowan, we are getting one of the world’s leading
experts in the use of gene therapy for breast cancer. We’re thrilled to
get somebody of his caliber. His credentials are outstanding — he comes
from the world’s leading cancer research institute and is right at the
top of his game.”
Dr. Cowan said he is excited about his new position. “I’ve been recruited
by a number of cancer centers in the past couple years. The Nebraska situation
is unique. It includes an excellent mix of basic scientists and clinical
scientists. All the components are in place for basic ideas in the laboratory
to be translated into therapeutic trials.
“Nebraska has always had a strong program in studying the origins of
cancer. Now they have developed outstanding clinical programs in cancer
therapy, including bone marrow transplantation. We hope to complement these
clinical programs with new basic research programs in cancer genetics,
cancer cell biology and cancer immunology. We hope to create an environment
in which exciting observations made in the lab can be rapidly brought to
the patient’s bedside in the form of new therapies to treat and prevent
cancer. The more we understand about the molecular basis of cancer the
better this knowledge can be used to more effectively treat and prevent
cancer.
“It’s an exciting time. The cancer center is already strong, and the
university is making a strong commitment to developing an even stronger
program. We want to become a world class comprehensive cancer center with
outstanding screening and prevention programs as well as cancer treatment
programs that can serve the entire region.”
Dr. Cowan’s breast cancer research focused on the mechanisms of drug
resistance, the biology of breast cancer and gene therapy. He has orchestrated
several clinical trials seeking new therapeutic applications for breast
cancer. These clinical trials have focused on gene therapy and trying to
identify new agents in the treatment of the disease.
A New York City native, Dr. Cowan earned his undergraduate degree at
the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. and his medical and doctorate
degrees from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Among his awards, Dr. Cowan received the Public Health Service Outstanding
Service Medal in 1991. He has authored more than 200 papers for scientific
journals and has been an invited guest lecturer for at least a dozen scientific
conferences in the past two years. He will make a major presentation on
his gene therapy breast cancer clinical trial at the American Society of
Clinical Oncology meeting in Atlanta in May.
Dr. Cowan said he expects to bring at least one of his clinical trials
to Omaha. This trial involves transferring drug-resistance genes into bone
marrow cells prior to giving these cells back to breast cancer patients
undergoing a bone marrow transplant. The hope is that the drug-resistance
genes will allow patients to receive higher doses of chemotherapy with
less toxicity.
He also has been working on taking genes that can inhibit the growth
of breast and ovarian cancer cells, re-engineering these genes, and
then injecting them back into the tumor as a way of getting these special
genes into the tumor cells. This work has
been done on animals to date, but hopefully can be extended to humans
in clinical trials in the near future.
During the recruitment process, Dr. Cowan made four trips back to Nebraska
and met with many people. He had special words of appreciation for the
Friends of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center, a community-based organization
committed to raising funds for cancer research. “The Friends were very
active in the recruiting process. They were outstanding. They really impressed
me with their commitment to the cancer center, and they made it much easier
for me to want to move to Omaha.”
Dr. Cowan said the NCI and NIH are both expected to increase their budgets
by 15 percent this year and continue to increase their budgets over the
next five years. This money will be used to fund extramural research
at universities and cancer centers.
“It’s an opportune time to expand cancer research programs,” he said.
“If UNMC can make a commitment to develop additional research, the opportunity
to get NIH funding is going to be much greater.” He cited the four levels
of research space in The Lied Transplant Center as indicative of UNMC’s
commitment to doing more research.
With the additional research funds that should be available, Dr. Cowan
said he hopes to double cancer center research over the next 5 to 10 years.
UNMC has committed to hiring 10 new faculty members in addition to the
three or four researchers expected to come with Dr. Cowan from the NCI.
The Eppley Institute was founded in 1961. Dr. Cowan will be the sixth
director in the institute’s 38-year history. He replaces Raymond W. Ruddon,
Jr., M.D., Ph.D., who served as director of the Eppley Institute and the
UNMC Eppley Cancer Center from 1989 to 1997. Dr. Ruddon left to become
director of the Corporate Office of Science and Technology with Johnson
& Johnson Corp. in New Brunswick, N.J.
Barry Gold, Ph.D., professor in the Eppley Institute, has served as
interim director of the Eppley Institute since Dr. Ruddon’s departure.
Margaret Tempero, M.D., deputy director of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center,
has served as interim director of the cancer center.
The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center is a NCI designated cancer center — a
distinction held by only 55 centers in the country. Of the $34.3 million
in competitive, external research grants and contracts awarded to UNMC
in 1997-98, cancer-related research accounted for about one-half of that
amount.
The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center was created in 1993 by the University
of Nebraska Board of Regents in a move that united cancer researchers throughout
the UNMC campus into a larger single entity. It marked a major first step
toward Eppley’s quest to eventually become a comprehensive cancer center,
the most prestigious designation awarded by the NCI.
Dr. Maurer recognized the work of the search committee headed by James
Armitage, M.D., professor and chairman of the UNMC internal medicine department.
The search committee reviewed the applications of about 20 leading cancer
experts and conducted interviews with a half-dozen individuals. “The search
committee did a terrific job,” Dr. Maurer said. “This was an extremely
important position for our campus. I couldn’t be more pleased with
our final selection.”
Dr. Cowan’s wife, Alison Freifeld, is an infectious disease specialist
at the NCI who works with infection problems encountered by cancer patients.
The couple has two daughters B Sara, 12, and Eliza, 9.