Dr. Gary Spitzer, who has an international reputation as a cancer and bone marrow transplant specialist, has been named Intermountain Health Care's new director of cancer services.
"Dr. Spitzer brings a wealth of experience and expertise to our system," said Gary Pehrson, IHC vice president of processional services, who is also chief executive officer of Alta View, Cottonwood, LDS and Wasatch Canyon hospitals.Spitzer recently arrived at IHC from St. Louis University Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., where he directed the division of bone marrow transplantation, oncology and hematology. He was also a professor of medicine at the St. Louis center.
As director of IHC Cancer Services, he will work to integrate all aspects of cancer services, said spokesman Jess Gomez. These include cancer prevention and education, diagnostics, clinical research and conventional and advanced medical therapies.
IHC has 24 hospitals, 21 of them in Utah. Its Cancer Services organization is a member of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry, Southwest Oncology Group, Gynecology Oncology Group, Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project.
The IHC comprehensive cancer program offers a range of services, including electron microscope examination, DNA analysis of tumor types, breast imaging, surgical pathology, state-of-the-art radiation therapy, surgical and medical oncology, bone marrow transplantation and clinical research.
Among Spitzer's accomplishments are professor of medicine at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he was also deputy director in the department of hematology, division of bone marrow transplantation.
After he earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Melbourne University, Australia, he published more than 227 articles in scientific journals and medical texts. He was a main investigator in numerous clinical trials, including studies funded by the Leukemia Society of America and the National Cancer Institute.