President John Mendelsohn steps down at U. of Texas cancer center
Houston Chronicle
December 7, 2010
Dr. John Mendelsohn, who served has president of the world-renowned University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for almost 15 years, announced Monday that he'll leave that position after the center finds a new leader.
Mendelsohn, 74, said he'll remain a faculty member at the center and become co-director of its new Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, which tests therapies that target abnormal genes and gene products found in individual patient's cancer in the hope of revolutionizing treatment.
"I thought the time was right," Mendelsohn said. "Things have been going very well. We've really increased our excellence in everything we do. We've grown tremendously in almost every parameter. I thought it was the right time for someone else to take charge."
Mendelsohn said that during his tenure the number of faculty and patients has doubled, the space and facilities tripled and the operating budget quadrupled.
MD Anderson currently employs almost 18,000 people, serves 100,000 patients a year and had a budget this year of more than $3.2 billion.
Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, UT system chancellor, said he expects the first search committee meeting to be in January.
