ACCC Honors Community Oncologist with National Award

ROCKVILLE, MD. – The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) has honored Cary A. Presant, MD, FACP, FASCO, with the prestigious David King Community Clinical Scientist Award, for his demonstrated leadership in the development, participation, and evaluation of clinical studies for cancer patients. Throughout his prolific career, Dr. Presant has been involved in numerous laboratory and clinical investigations, authoring more than 400 scientific articles on topics including cancer treatment and detection, chemotherapy, experimental tumor biology, pharmacology, and the measurement of quality of life in cancer patients.

"It is such an honor to present this year’s award to a former ACCC President, Dr. Cary Presant. He remains an active member of ACCC on the editorial committee and as the author of an annual ASCO round-up for Oncology Issues,” said Jennie R. Crews, MD, MMM, FACP, ACCC President.

In accepting the award Dr. Presant honored ACCC Past-President Dr. David King, who passed away after a brief battle with cancer. Dr. Presant spoke of his legacy, his commitment to his patients, time spent with his family, and the work they did together.

Dr. Presant is assistant clinical professor at City of Hope Medical Center, professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and currently serves on the board of the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California.

Dr. Presant is a past president of the California Division of the American Cancer Society, and past president and chairman of the Board of the Medical Oncology Association of Southern California. He is a past Director of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), having served a five-year term as ASCO’s representative to the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association (AMA), where he was also secretary of the Cancer Caucus and an expert advisor to the Diagnosis and Therapy Technology Assessment Program.

Dr. Presant received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed medical internship, residency, and fellowship at Columbia University in New York City, the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Washington University School of Medicine.

The award was presented on October 20, 2016, during the ACCC 33rd National Oncology Conference in St. Louis, MO.