Upcoming panel on breast cancer in the White House

In 2012, Duke Cancer Institute and the Duke University School of Medicine committed to a five-year, three-million-dollar investment in a new Duke BioRepository and Precision Pathology Center (BRPC) — a clinical research and discovery resource with its administrative home in the Department of Pathology. 

Spurred by key investments in technology, services, and personnel, the BRPC grew, thrived, and progressively built a national reputation.

Ten years ago, visionaries in the Department of Pathology and Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) saw an opportunity to advance human tissue-based research and precision cancer medicine at Duke and grabbed it.

A working group led by Pathology faculty Rajesh Dash, MD (then co-leader with Alan Proia, MD, PhD, of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center Biorepository), Michael Datto, MD, PhD (then- leader of the Genome Trials Support Facility), and Shannon McCall, MD, together with other leaders in the Duke School of Medicine (SOM) began to discuss merging into one entity the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center Biorepository, which had started to languish from under-funding, and the nascent Genome Trials Support Facility.

They had the ear of Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, the William and Jane Shingleton Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and Executive Director of Duke Cancer Institute (DCI). Kastan, who had joined Duke in 2011, believed that DCI, the successor entity to the National Cancer Institute-designated Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, could serve as a national model for structuring cancer programs — bringing together research, patient care, and education under one umbrella.

Medical oncologist Edwin P. Alyea, III, MD, has been named chief medical officer (CMO) for Duke Cancer Institute (DCI). He will also serve as a professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapy. In addition, Alyea will operate a clinical practice with the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. He joined Duke on January 1. (2020)

The CMO position is a new role at DCI. As physician clinical lead, Alyea will oversee an integrated approach to the delivery of cancer services across the health system. He will be instrumental to DCI’s goal of transforming both the prevention and treatment of cancer.

“Dr. Alyea will drive the ‘One Duke/One DCI’ practice – strengthening and advancing our commitment to safe, quality patient care,” said Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, the executive director of DCI. “We are excited to have someone of Ted’s experience and expertise to help lead coordination of cancer patient care operations and strategies across all of the components of Duke Health, including the Duke University Health System, the PDC, and the School of Medicine.”

In collaboration with oncology nursing and leadership, Alyea will provide clinical leadership for the oncology outpatient clinics and inpatient units at all DCI sites — Duke University Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and all sites of community oncology practice. He will also provide clinical oversight for DCI quality initiatives, including development of quality metrics and standards for DCI physicians.

Previously, from 1996 to 2019, Alyea was a faculty member and practicing oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). He most recently directed Clinical Strategy for DFCI’s Hematologic Malignancies Program. 

Before that, he served as director of the Inpatient Oncology Service and associate director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program for DFCI and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. From 2000 to 2017, he was the medical director of DFCI’s Physician Assistant Program.