Boris C. Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, joined the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in August 2023 as the president & CEO, the principal investigator (PI) of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Center Core Grant and the chair of the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
As an experienced hematologist and medical oncologist, Dr. Pasche’s clinical specialties are in treating gastrointestinal malignancies, and hereditary cancer. His research focuses on cancer susceptibility and new therapies. In 2018, a medical device that Dr. Pasche developed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma received regulatory approval in Europe. This device received FDA breakthrough designation in 2019 and FDA Humanitarian Use Designation in 2022 for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.
A native of Switzerland, Dr. Pasche earned his doctorate of medicine and doctorate of philosophy from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and another doctorate of medicine from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Pasche completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital at Cornell University Medical Center. He also went on to complete a hematology and oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a second postdoctoral fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.
Dr. Pasche’s career spans over 30 years, in which he’s held numerous executive leadership positions. He has shown great success in growing and expanding an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center’s program resulting in more funding, and has strengthened and re-organized cancer research programs leading to NCI core grant renewal. Dr. Pasche is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He is the recipient of Ohio State University Human Cancer Genetics Program Commemorative Medal and the Jeanik M. Littelfield-American Association for Cancer Research Award in Metastatic Colon Cancer Research. Dr. Pasche is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research, American Association of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Human Genetics, The Bioelectromagnetics Society, and the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ECOG-ACRIN) Cancer Research Group. He also served as an associate editor for JAMA (Journal for American Medical Association), a peer-reviewed medical journal, for over a decade.
Dr. Pasche has given multiple national and international lectures in his area of expertise. He has also published over 120 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and editorials, many appearing in high-impact journals.