Dana-Farber President, CEO Laurie Glimcher, MD, Steps Down

After 8 years of service, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute president and CEO Laurie Glimcher, MD, will step down from her post on October 1, according to a press release from the Boston institution.

Glimcher was the first woman to run Dana-Farber in its almost 80-year history.

Glimcher will be replaced by Dana-Farber’s medical oncology chair, Benjamin Levine Ebert, MD, PhD, who said he was “honored” by his selection. In addition to numerous other current responsibilities, he leads a blood cancer research lab with a focus on myelodysplastic syndromes and clonal hematopoiesis and is also a professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Under Glimcher’s leadership, Dana-Farber’s regional locations grew from four to seven with a 51% growth in patient volume and a 62% increase in grant and industry-funded research support, totalling $450 million in fiscal year 2023, according to the release.

“As I reflect on my tenure, I am intensely proud of” those and other accomplishments, Glimcher, 73, said in the release. “This is the perfect time for me to pass the leadership of this remarkable institution on to the next generation and return my focus to cancer immunology research.”

She will remain at Dana-Farber as a mentor to younger physicians and to continue her immunology research.

Glimcher did encounter several controversies in her tenure, according to various news reports.

Last year, she made a surprise decision to end a long-standing partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, where patients from Dana-Farber have received inpatient care. Instead, Glimcher wanted Dana-Farber to operate its own hospital and made a deal to construct one — a project that will cost almost $1.7 billion and be up to Ebert to complete.

Glimcher also sat on the GlaxoSmithKline board of directors for several years while leading Dana-Farber. And earlier this year, Dana-Farber researchers retracted several papers and issued corrections to others. Glimcher was an author on some, though “there have been no public findings that she engaged in any misconduct,” according to STAT News.

Glimcher told STAT News she approached Dana-Farber’s board in spring about relinquishing her executive duties.

“I loved every minute of my job as the CEO. It is an all-encompassing one, and I’m ready to step back,” she told STAT. “I’m really looking forward to spending more time with my postdoctoral fellows. I’m also looking forward to mentoring… And frankly, I want to spend more time with my family.”

M. Alexander Otto is a physician assistant with a master’s degree in medical science and a journalism degree from Newhouse. He is an award-winning medical journalist who worked for several major news outlets before joining Medscape Medical News. Email: [email protected].