Abbruzzese Steps Down, Anders, Stinchcombe Step Up

In a joint message to faculty and staff, Michael B. Kastan, MD, PhD, executive director of Duke Cancer Institute, and Kathleen A. Cooney, MD, MACP, chair of the Department of Medicine, have announced that James Abbruzzese, MD, Duke Cancer Institute Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology, has decided to step down from his roles as chief of the Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, and as associate director of Clinical Research at DCI, effective June 30, 2021.

They also announced that, effective July 1, 2021, Carey Anders, MD, will assume the role of interim chief of the Division of Medical Oncology and Thomas Stinchcombe, MD, will assume the role of associate director of Clinical Research at DCI. Both Anders and Stinchcombe are professors in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology.

"We are grateful for Dr. Abbruzzese’s exceptional leadership at Duke Cancer Institute and the Department of Medicine during a time of tremendous growth and change," wrote Kastan and Cooney. "Please join us in extending our heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Abbruzzese for his leadership and service to the Department and the Institute these last eight and a half years. He will continue to be a valuable resource for our entire team as we continue to grow."

Though he is stepping down from his administrative duties, Abbruzzese will continue his clinical practice and academic pursuits within the Duke Cancer Institute Gastrointestinal Cancers Disease Group, which he will continue to direct.

Abbruzzese earned his medical degree with honors from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins and in Oncology at Harvard University Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Abbruzzese spent most of his professional career at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he rose through the ranks to leadership positions that included chair of the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology and associate vice-provost for Clinical Research. In 2013, he joined Duke as chief of the Division of Medical Oncology.

In her new role as interim chief of the Division of Medical Oncology, Anders will oversee the clinical, research, and educational missions of a division comprised of 74 faculty and 85 staff who  provide clinical care across all three DUHS hospitals and the Duke Cancer Network of affiliates and conduct world-class research at the Duke University School of Medicine.

Anders is a clinician-researcher with the Duke Cancer Institute Breast Cancer Disease Group and also serves as medical director for the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis at DCI. Her research is focused on the genetic and genomic underpinnings of breast cancer brain metastases and the translation of those findings into rationally-designed therapeutics.

Anders earned her medical degree from the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, in 2002, and completed both her internal medicine residency (2005) and her hematology-oncology fellowship (2008) at Duke. She went on to serve as the co-director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and returned to Duke as a faculty member in 2019.

In his new role as associate director of Clinical Research for DCI, Stinchcombe will work closely with DCI’s Clinical Research Office — providing clinical, regulatory, and financial oversight across all disease group Clinical Research Units.

Stinchcombe earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1995, completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1998, and completed his hematology-oncology fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001. He served as co-director of the multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center before joining the faculty at Duke in 2016. 

"We look forward to working with Dr. Anders and Dr. Stinchcombe in their new roles," said Cooney and Kastan.