We are pleased to announce the appointment of Armen Aprikian, MD, as Interim Chair, Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), McGill University. Dr. Aprikian assumes his duties on August 28, as Eduardo Franco, PhD, concludes more than a decade as Chair of the Department. We thank Prof. Franco for his expert leadership and his many important achievements since taking the helm on an interim basis in 2011. Under his leadership the department continued to grow, and its portfolio of educational activities was improved and expanded with the revamping of both the oncology curriculum for undergraduate medical education as well as the MORE series, the creation of the annual Celebration of Research and Training in Oncology and the development of the Graduate Diploma in Oncology and eight new graduate level courses.
Dr. Aprikian is well known to the McGill community as Chief of the Cancer Care Mission and Medical Director of the Cedars Cancer Centre at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). He is the Clinical Lead and Chair of the Executive Committee of the Rossy Cancer Network. A professor in the Department of Surgery and the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology in the FMHS, Dr. Aprikian was appointed the Richard Tomlinson Chair in Prostate Cancer at McGill University in 2010.
For the past three years, he has served as Associate-Chair (Clinical), Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology at McGill. He is an attending surgeon in Urology at the MUHC, as well as at the Jewish General Hospital, and St. Mary’s Hospital (part-time).
In the early 2000s, Dr. Aprikian was a founding member of Procure, a Quebec-based prostate cancer foundation, and is Chair of the foundation’s biobank committee and its Quebec Prostate Cancer Biobank Network. Dr. Aprikian is actively involved in the leadership of national and provincial committees in cancer surgery outcomes and standards of care, including the Programme Québécois de Cancérologie, Comite de planification stratégique 2023. He is the immediate Past President of the Canadian Urology Association.
Dr. Aprikian conducts basic research in molecular characterization of lethal prostatic carcinoma, and his clinical research activities include studies in family cancer history and prostatic carcinoma, quality of life after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, and surgical volume and clinical outcome in urologic oncology, among others. He is currently funded by the Terry Fox Institute – Marathon of Hope Cancer Networks as principal investigator for two major studies.
As Interim Chair of the Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Dr. Aprikian will oversee a wide range of dossiers pertaining to oncology clinical care, clinical and graduate education, and cancer research, while continuing to lead the Cancer Care Mission at the MUHC. Dr. Aprikian will ensure the ongoing daily operations of the Department and advise the Dean on all matters related to the Department.
Please join us in thanking Dr. Aprikian for agreeing to serve as Interim Chair of the Department and for bringing his vast expertise and experience to lead the Department on an interim basis.
Lesley Fellows, MDCM, DPhil
Vice-Principal (Health Affairs)
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Marc D. Pell, PhD
Interim Vice-Dean, Academic Affairs