Coalition Leadership

Laurence H. Baker, DO, is professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Departments of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Michigan Medical School.

Dr Baker has 30 years’ experience in the treatment of sarcoma and design of clinical trials for new sarcoma therapies. In July, 2003, he was elected by his peers as Chair-Elect of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), the largest cancer clinical trials organization in the world. SWOG’s membership lists nearly 4000 of the nation’s leading physicians and scientists at 283 institutions in the United States and Canada. He became chair at the Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, in April 2006. Dr Baker is a scientific consultant to the National Cancer Institute and several universities, a member of many prestigious organizations, and a nationally recognized expert in sarcoma treatment. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature and has authored or co-authored 50 books and/or book chapters, and is regularly invited to speak as a guest lecturer.

In 1987, Dr Baker became the director of the Meyer L. Prentis Comprehensive Cancer Center of Metropolitan Detroit where he remained until his recruitment to the University of Michigan in 1994. He served as the Deputy Director and Director for Clinical Research at the University of Michigan until May, 2004.

Dr Baker received his medical degree from the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery at Des Moines, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1966. After receiving his degree, he did a medical residency at Detroit Osteopathic Hospital which was followed by an oncology fellowship at Wayne State University. Dr Baker joined the faculty of the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University upon completion of his fellowship in 1972.

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