CHOP Oncologist Appointed by President Obama to National Cancer Advisory Board

Peter C. Adamson, MD, a pediatric oncologist and leading scientist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and a professor of Pediatrics and Pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been appointed by President Obama to the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB). Dr. Adamson is the only pediatric oncologist to currently serve on the NCAB, and will work to ensure the voices of the pediatric cancer community are heard by decision makers in the federal government.

In this role Dr. Adamson will advise the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the President on a wide range of issues relating to the national cancer program including NCI operations. Notably, the NCAB and the President’s Cancer Panel are the only advisory bodies at either the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health and Human Services whose members are appointed by the President.

“We are extremely proud of Dr. Adamson on his appointment by President Obama to this distinguished advisory board,” said Joseph St. Geme, MD, physician-in-chief and chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “This recognition is a testament to his dedication and leadership within the medical community in furthering research to advance treatment for childhood cancer.” 

This appointment follows the President’s announcement in the State of the Union address of a Precision Medicine Initiative that will harness research and technology toward developing individualized treatments for many diseases.

An internationally recognized leader in pediatric cancer drug development, Dr. Adamson has served as Chair of The Children's Oncology Group (COG), the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research, since 2010. Through COG, he works with leading pediatric cancer researchers at CHOP and across the country who are hard at work on the most promising new therapies.

From 1999 to 2014, Dr. Adamson was Chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at CHOP, and he also served as Director of the Office of Clinical and Translational Research from 2005 to 2011. Prior to joining CHOP in 1999, he was a member of the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the NCI.