Al B. Benson III was appointed deputy chair for policy and implementation by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group.
Benson will lead EA’s efforts to strengthen collaboration between academic and community participants and expand real-world opportunities and community leadership. His expertise in program and guideline development will be critical to the development of a focused, integrated research program within ECOG-ACRIN, group of ficials said.
Benson is a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, director for Cooperative Groups at the Lurie Cancer Center, and a medical oncologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He is an active member of ECOG-ACRIN, where he serves as chair of the EA Data Safety Monitoring Committee, co-chair of the NCORP Community Advisory Committee, co-chair of the Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee, and the immediate past chair of EA’s Gastrointestinal Cancer Committee.
He is an executive committee member and past-chair of the board of directors of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and a member of the board of directors of the NCCN Foundation. He is the chair of both the NCCN Hepatobiliary Guidelines Panel and of the Colon, Rectal and Anal Panel, and a member of the Pancreatic Cancer and Neuroendocrine Panels. Benson is also chair of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium Steering Committee. He is a member of the executive committee of the Patient Advocate Foundation, the National Patient Advocate Foundation, and the scientific advisory committee of Friends of Cancer Research.
