Dr. Michael Caligiuri talks about Ohio State's emergence as an international cancer center

Dr. Michael Caligiuri, M.D., director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, on Ohio State's emergence as an international cancer center.

I always say to people that I recruit that opportunitys inversely proportional to what's in place. I had previously been at Harvard. Phenomenal place, phenomenal minds. Packed to the gills. The ability of a young person to be at a place like Harvard and really create a new venue to really change what is happening there is really impossible because there are so many people there trying to do so many things. It's better for a young person who has a lot of energy and passion to go to a place that's in need of new expertise and has opportunity wide open in terms of which way you can take it. When I came here 12 years ago there was a great foundation, great infrastructure for developing a cancer program, but it was in its infancy. And that to me was what I was looking for; I was looking for the ability to create something new, and Ohio State provided that opportunity.

We're the only one thats connected to a medical center and sitting in a large university, of these 10 centers in the country, these 10 freestanding cancer hospitals. We're the only one that sits, literally physically connected to a medical center, and then on this campus. So again, it's like the kid in the candy store, being able to come to this university, have a College of Engineering here, have a College of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Social Worker, Social Worker, Psychology, Nursing, Public Health etc. It's fantastic for any researcher. So the James, Medical Center and the university all catapult recruits toward Ohio State.

Since arriving in 1997, collectively, as a team, weve recruited about 220 cancer physicians, cancer scientists, or cancer physician-scientists here at a cost of about $350 million. But weve quadrupled NIH funding, National Cancer Institute funding, weve quadrupled the number of patients being seen here, weve increased our bed capacity, our outpatient capacity. I think by bringing this talent into The Ohio State University we've really helped build the name of the university in cancer across the world.

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Science & Technology

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• Michael Caligiuri
• James Cancer Hospital