David Avigan, MD, Named Director of the BIDMC Cancer Center and Senior Vice President of Cancer Services at Beth Israel Lahey Health
Cambridge, MA – David Avigan, MD, has been named director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Cancer Center and senior vice president of Cancer Services at Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH). In his new role, Avigan will be responsible for setting the vision and strategic direction for cancer care, research and education for the BIDMC Cancer Center and the BILH network.
As director of the BIDMC Cancer Center, Avigan will expand capacity for cancer research and clinical care in support of its mission to provide extraordinary patient care supported by world-class education and research. In his BILH role, Avigan will advance collaboration and integration to develop destination clinical programs in cancer that are nationally recognized for excellence and innovation.
A professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Avigan is highly respected as a thought leader in cancer clinical care and science, including for his groundbreaking work in cancer immunotherapy. As director of the Hematological Malignancies/Bone Marrow Transplant Program and chief of Hematology/Hematologic Malignancy Division, Avigan has established and grown a nationally recognized service that provides leading- edge therapies and patient-centered care.
Avigan directs a large laboratory working on personalized cancer vaccines and CAR T-cell therapies, has led national cancer studies and heads a clinical trials program for hematological malignancies. He also established the Randi and Brian Schwartz Family Cancer Immunotherapy and Cell Manipulation Facility, which helps to treat hundreds of patients with innovative immune-based treatments. In addition, he has served as the national principal investigator for a first-of-its-kind, academic-led trial studying a personalized cancer vaccine supervising cell production and immune studies for 18 participating sites across the United States.
Avigan recently led efforts within BILH to establish a hematologic malignancies working group for case presentation and review, patient referral and the establishment of therapeutic and diagnostic guidelines.
Avigan also holds leadership positions within the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center (DFHCC); he serves on the DFHCC Executive Committee and as deputy associate director of the Clinical Science Program, chair of the Scientific Review Committee and a member of the Leukemia and Myeloma Programs.
Avigan earned his medical degree from the Yale University School of Medicine and completed his residency and chief residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology.
About Beth Israel Lahey Health
Beth Israel Lahey Health is a health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, more than 4,700 physicians and 39,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.
