Lung Cancer in the News: 2009

Dr. Thomas J. Lynch, one of the nation's top lung cancer specialists, is leaving Massachusetts General Hospital to become director of the Yale Cancer Center, the New Haven hospital announced this afternoon.

Lynch will also be the top doctor at a massive new treatment facility, the Smilow Cancer Hospital, scheduled to open in October. The 14-story, 500,000-square-foot cancer center is a partnership of the Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

At Mass. General since 1993, Lynch most recently has served as chief of hematology/oncology at the hospital's cancer center. He has been a leader in using genetic analysis to guide lung cancer patients to the drugs most likely to help them survive the nation's deadliest form of cancer.

Dr. Daniel Haber, director of the Mass. General Cancer Center, described Lynch as "a close friend and collaborator for many years," in an e-mailed statement.

"He has played a major role in shaping the MGH Cancer Center, where he trained a generation of young physicians, set the standard for exceptional clinical care, and has had a major impact on the development of novel treatments for lung cancer," Haber wrote.

For Lynch, the post at Yale represents a homecoming: He received both his undergraduate and medical degrees there.