Nicholas J. Vogelzang

Overview
Dr Nicholas J. Vogelzang was appointed as the Director of the Nevada Cancer Institute (NVCI) in January of 2004. His research interests are in clinical trials in genitourinary malignancies and mesothelioma. He is also involved in new therapies for patients with metastatic kidney cancer, including gene therapy and cytokine therapy.

Career
Dr. Vogelzang received his M.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1974. He completed his internship, residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, followed by his fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

He served as a faculty member at the University of Chicago since 1982 including serving as the director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.

Research
In 2002, Vogelzang directed the largest Phase II trial for mesothelioma using pemetrexed (brand name Alimta&reg;, by Eli Lilly). Pemetrexed is an antifolate, a class of drugs that targets the folic acid metabolic pathway. The results of the trial show that tumors shrank in 41 percent of patients on pemetrexed in combination with a more commonly used chemotherapy agent called cisplatin. Only 17 percent of patients receiving cisplatin alone experienced tumor shrinkage. Additionally, those on the pemetrexed combination lived nearly three months longer than those on cisplatin alone. 

Professional memberships
Dr. Vogelzang has served on committees of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), as well as on its Board of Directors from 1993 to 1996. He is a former president of the Illinois Division of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Vogelzang was the principal investigator at the University of Chicago for Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) from 1988 to 1999, Chair of the CALGB Prostate Committee from 1993 to 1999.

He is a founding board member of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) and is a member the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Urological Association, the Society of Urologic Oncology and the European Society for Medical Oncology.

Corporate relationships
Vogelzang is a member of the scientific advisory board for Advanced Life Sciences which is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel drugs in the areas of infectious disease, inflammation and oncology.