The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC–James) has recruited Marcos J. de Lima, MD, to lead its Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy programs, two key leadership positions within central Ohio’s only National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer center and largest freestanding hospital. Dr. de Lima has joined a leading blood cancer team that includes more than 67 hematologists and researchers working in subspecialized, cross-functional clinical care and research teams in the Division of Hematology at Ohio State’s College of Medicine.
Marcos J. de Lima, MD
Prior to joining the OSUCCC–James, Dr. de Lima served as Co-Leader of the Hematopoietic and Immune Cancer Biology Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant Program at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. He brings more than 2 decades of experience in developing and conducting studies in stem cell transplantation and cells of the immune system to the OSUCCC–James.
Advancing the Cellular Therapy Program
“I firmly believe that Ohio State has it all: forward-thinking leadership, resources, commitment, and willingness to bring forth new treatments to patients. My vision to create a multidisciplinary engine of cellular therapy development and production has found a home,” said Dr. de Lima, who will serve as Professor in the Division of Hematology at The Ohio State and as a member of the OSUCCC–James Leukemia Research Program.
Like chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, cellular therapy consists of modifying a patient’s own cells or cells from a healthy donor to directly destroy specific cancer cells. In October 2017, the OSUCCC–James was among the first cancer hospitals in the United States to offer the first cellular therapy for blood cancer: chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Since then, four CAR T-cell therapy products have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of various different blood cancers.
