UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Primo “Lucky” Lara Jr. has been appointed co-chair-elect of the SWOG Cancer Research Network, a National Cancer Institute-supported alliance. He’ll share the job with Dawn L. Hershman, deputy director of cancer care delivery and research at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University in New York City.
SWOG’s board of governors appointed the two cancer center leaders to serve as co-chairs-elect until the term of the current SWOG group chair, Charles D. Blanke, ends in spring 2025. At that point, the two will begin a six-year term as SWOG group’s first co-chairs.
Along with serving as the cancer center director, Lara is professor of medicine and executive associate dean for cancer programs at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Within SWOG he currently serves as the group’s deputy chair and vice chair of operations.
SWOG Cancer Research Network is a global cancer research community of over 18,000 members in 45 states and nine countries who design and conduct publicly funded clinical trials. The group, with its operations office in San Antonio, Texas, is a member of the NCI National Clinical Trials Network and the NCI Community Oncology Research Program.
