Vincent T. DeVita, Jr., MD

Vincent T. Devita, Jr., MD is the Director of Yale Cancer Center 1993-2003, DeVita currently serves as chair of the Yale Cancer Center advisory board and is professor of internal medicine and of epidemiology and public health at the School of Medicine.

He spent the early part of his career at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and in 1980, the president of the United States appointed him as director of the NCI and the National Cancer Program, a position he held until 1988.

DeVita has earned international recognition for his accomplishments as a pioneer in the field of oncology.

While at the NCI, he was instrumental in developing combination chemotherapy programs that ultimately led to an effective regimen of curative chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease and diffuse large cell lymphomas. Along with colleagues at the NCI, he developed the four-drug combination, known by the acronym MOPP, which increased the cure rate for patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease from nearly zero to over 70%.

In addition, in collaboration with Dr. George Canellos, DeVita developed the combination chemotherapy CMF, which still remains a useful therapy for breast cancer.

DeVita earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the College of William and Mary in 1957. He was awarded his M.D. degree with distinction from the George Washington University School of Medicine in 1961.

DeVita currently serves on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals and is the author or co-author of more than 450 scientific articles. He is one of the three editors of "Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology," and serves as the editor-in-chief of The Cancer Journal.