Professor Jan Vermorken Is The New Editor-in-chief Of Annals Of Oncology

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Breast Cancer;  Lymphoma / Leukemia / Myeloma;  Lung Cancer
Article Date: 08 Dec 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Professor Jan B. Vermorken, an internationally respected medical oncologist based at Antwerp University Hospital (Edegem, Belgium), has been appointed to be the next editor-in-chief of the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology.

Prof Vermorken will take up his post on 1 January 2009, replacing Professor David Kerr who has been editor-in-chief of Annals of Oncology for the past nine years and is now the president-elect of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Annals of Oncology is a monthly journal published on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) by Oxford Journals.

Prof Vermorken is currently Professor of Oncology at the University of Antwerp and head of the Department of Medical Oncology at the Antwerp University Hospital .

He said: "To be editor-in-chief of Annals of Oncology is something that I have really wanted to do. It's one of the most important journals in oncology and I see it as a very important task to further strengthen the journal after the wonderful work carried out by its previous editors, David Kerr and Franco Cavalli.

"The journal is becoming much more multi-disciplinary and I will be working with the members of the editorial board to continue this trend, but also to integrate more translational research, which is becoming an increasingly important area for oncologists and for patients.

"We will also be working hard to raise the journal's impact factor over the coming years and this will require close interaction with the editorial board so that we become even more selective about which papers the journal chooses for publication and to encourage researchers to submit more reports of randomised trials. The journal will also be joining the Oxford Open scheme; in doing so, it will be joining some other important medical journals in making more articles freely available to anyone to read, and I hope that this will also help to raise the impact factor."

Launched in 2005, Oxford Open, is an open access initiative by Oxford Journals, which allows authors to pay for their research to be freely available online immediately at point of publication. If an author does not choose to pay the open access publication charge, their paper will be published in Annals of Oncology in the normal manner.

The president of ESMO, Professor José Baselga, said: "Annals of Oncology is the official journal of ESMO and one of the leading journals in its field. It plays a crucial role in disseminating important research by members of ESMO and the international cancer community to the widest possible audience. The post of editor-in-chief is a key appointment, both for the journal and for ESMO, and this is reflected in the care taken by the nominating committee to choose and appoint a successor to David Kerr. I am delighted with the appointment of Jan Vermorken and I am sure that he will do a great job in building on the journal's current success, and in promoting the journal and the society to everyone working in cancer research."

Prof Kerr said: "Jan Vermorken is an excellent choice for editor-in-chief of Annals of Oncology and I wish him every success in what has been an exciting, interesting and challenging job for me over the past nine years."

Biography

Prof Vermorken started his medical training in 1961 and graduated from the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 1970. He did his internal medicine training at the University Hospital, Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and became a board-certified specialist in internal medicine in 1975. Since that time he has worked in the field of medical oncology and was officially registered as a medical oncologist in The Netherlands in 1992. He received his PhD in Medical Sciences in 1986 from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.

His main field of interest is in gynaecology, head and neck oncology. In addition, he has co-ordinated large trials in breast and colon cancer. His research interests include early clinical and pharmacological studies with new drugs, studies on the interaction of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, HPV in various malignancies, and immunological approaches. He also devotes a significant amount of time to teaching, professional training, and continuing medical education.

He has played an active role in a number of international societies such as ESMO, the European Society of Gynaecology, the International Gynecologic Cancer Society, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, the Dutch Cancer Society, the Dutch Society of Oncology and the Belgian Association of Cancer Research.

Annals of Oncology is a monthly journal published on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) by Oxford Journals.
http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org

ESMO website: www.esmo.org
The Oxford Open website: www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen