Full text of Brian Druker’s email

Published 11:42 am Sunday, December 1, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

It is with deep sadness that I am announcing my resignation, effective immediately, as the CEO of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. I will be returning to where I started, running my lab and seeing patients, while exploring options for where I can continue to make an impact.

When I arrived at OHSU over 30 years ago, there was a culture of curiosity and unlimited possibilities. My focus was on improving outcomes for patients with cancer. From this, came Gleevec, the first of its kind targeted therapy, that took a leukemia with a three to five-year life expectancy to a disease where I can confidently tell a newly diagnosed patient that they can expect to live a normal life span. Every week in clinic, I get to hear their stories and see pictures of their children and grandchildren, many they never expected to see.

I am proud of the work we have accomplished together at the Knight Cancer Institute. I have had the privilege of building a center of excellence with our focus on improving outcomes for patients with cancer. Through our recruitment of a dream team of scientists, we have continued our leadership role in precision oncology. Our SMMART clinical trial not only matches patients with the right treatments, but we monitor the tumor as it evolves on treatment, so we can stay ahead of the cancer. We also established the first of its kind cancer early detection program and have helped launched a blood test that can detect up to 50 cancers at early stages. We are already seeing the benefits of this with stories of lives being saved due to early detection of cancers that would never have been identified at such early, curable stages. We launched the first OHSU program for under-represented high school students over 25 years ago and many of these students are now in the health care field. And we’ve always kept our focus on our patients by providing navigators throughout our center. None of these great things would have happened were it not for the incredible support of Penny and Phil Knight, the Boyle family and so many others who believed in us.

I would not have been able to accomplish any of this without the remarkable faculty and staff who do not always get the recognition or support they deserve. I’ll always remember Laurie, the long-time cashier in MacKenzie Hall who would remind me to eat when I worked long hours. Susan Hedlund, who pioneered patient support and care, who was always there to console me when I lost a patient to cancer. Chris Eide, the technician who has been with me for over 15 years and has been responsible for much of the best work coming out of my lab. There are so many others of you who have worked tirelessly to advance our mission and I am grateful for your work.

Throughout my career, I have had opportunities to lead some of the largest medical institutions in the world. But more than titles or prominence, I have always come back to what would have the most impact on advancing cancer research and improving patients’ lives. I always believed at this institution, in this beautiful, under the radar spot of the world, we could do things that no one else could.

I still have more I want to do to advance cancer research and improve patient care. With much reflection, I have concluded that at this time those goals are no longer achievable at OHSU. We have lost sight of what is crucial and forgotten our mission. I will continue to see patients every week who always remind me why the work we do is so important.

Brian Druker