Wilding named acting director of cancer center
George Wilding has been named acting director of the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC), effective Nov. 1, 2002. Wilding’s appointment was announced by Philip Farrell, dean of the UW Medical School.
Wilding, 50, will succeed John E. Niederhuber, M.D., who announced in May that he would resign as director of the UWCCC effective Oct. 31, 2002. Wilding will serve as acting director until a permanent director is selected through a national search that will begin later this fall.
Wilding currently serves as the Cancer Center’s associate director for clinical programs, which conduct more than 200 clinical research trials each year. He directs the UWCCC Experimental Therapeutics Program, which seeks to identify new anti-cancer agents in the laboratory and translate them into clinical treatments with human patients.
A nationally renowned prostate cancer researcher, Wilding is the Donald and Marilyn Anderson professor of medicine and serves as head of the Medical Oncology section within the Department of Medicine at the UW Medical School. He has been a UWCCC member since joining the UW faculty in 1988. In his clinical practice, Wilding sees patients with genitourinary cancers, including prostate, kidney, testicular and bladder cancers. He is currently chairman of the Genitourinary Cancer Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, a National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical research group, and serves on numerous NCI, industry and foundation advisory and review boards.
“Cancer will directly affect one of every two men and one of every three women in their lifetime,” Wilding said. “Fortunately, many of those on the front lines in the fight against cancer are conducting their research right here at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center. I am honored by this appointment and pleased to work with an extraordinary team of faculty and staff that collectively places this organization among the nation’s leading cancer research and treatment facilities.”
A native of Everett, Massachusetts, Wilding graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He also has a master’s degree (pharmacology) from Pennsylvania State University and bachelor’s degrees from Tufts University (chemical engineering and biology). He lives in Middleton with his wife, Helen, and two children.
Created in 1973 as one of the first university-based comprehensive cancer centers, the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of 39 cancer centers (and the only one in Wisconsin) designated as “comprehensive” by the National Cancer Institute, the lead federal agency for cancer research. The “comprehensive” designation recognizes excellence in:
- Basic laboratory and clinical research
- Cancer prevention and control
- Multidisciplinary approaches for treatment
- Training and education of health professionals
- Community outreach programs
- Cancer information services
UWCCC investigators conduct more than $85 million in cancer research each year.