Surgical oncologist recruited to head UF’s department of surgery

Surgical oncologist William G. Cance, M.D., internationally known for his genetic investigations on mechanisms of tumor survival, has been appointed professor and chairman of the University of Florida College of Medicine’s department of surgery.

Cance, former chief of surgical oncology with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will assume the position January 1, 2003. He succeeds Edward M. Copeland III, M.D., who served as chairman for 21 years and will remain a full-time faculty member as the Edward R. Woodward professor of surgery.

As chairman, Cance will oversee departments of surgery on both the Gainesville campus, comprised of eight divisions and 37 physicians, and the Jacksonville campus, with eight divisions and 26 physicians.

Cance was a natural fit for the job, in large part due to his outstanding qualifications in teaching, research and clinical practice, said C. Craig Tisher, M.D., dean of the College of Medicine.

“Dr. Cance has demonstrated his ability to juggle those three missions at UNC, and we believe he will strengthen all of them at UF,” Tisher said. “That’s one of the reasons he was recognized by the search committee and why I felt we needed to bring him onboard.”

Cance plans to give high priority to helping the UF Shands Cancer Center build its programs on the Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses, and attain designation as a “comprehensive cancer center” from the National Cancer Institute. He has been appointed associate director for clinical affairs with the cancer center, which involves almost 300 UF faculty engaged in cancer research, education and patient care.

He is internationally known for researching genes associated with tumor survival. Cance’s team identified the gene controlling production of the enzyme focal adhesion kinase, associated with cancer invasion, and showed that by deactivating the gene, researchers can cause apoptosis, or programmed tumor cell death.

At UNC, Cance directed the division of surgical oncology and served as the Hector MacLean distinguished professor of cancer research. He also was a professor of cell and developmental biology and associate director of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Tisher said Cance is “one of the bright, energetic younger leaders in major surgery societies today.” Cance serves on a scientific study section of the National Cancer Institute and several committees of the American College of Surgeons, and recently was nominated to be treasurer of the Society of Surgical Oncology.

Cance earned his medical doctorate in 1982 from the Duke University School of Medicine. His postgraduate work includes appointments as chief resident in the department of surgery at Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and chief fellow in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.