"The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congratulates Dr. Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless on his successful tenure as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). During his five years at NCI, Dr. Sharpless guided the Institute to advance the goals of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, including important work to modernize cancer clinical trials to reflect an improved understanding of biology and the new types of therapies available to treat cancer. We are hopeful that these efforts will endure even after Dr. Sharpless’ departure later this month.

"Under Dr. Sharpless’ leadership, NCI also enhanced data sharing to speed up work across the cancer research enterprise. In childhood cancer research, for example, Dr. Sharpless led an intentional effort focused on aggregating and linking data from a variety of sources so researchers can learn from every child with cancer and oncologists can have the timely information they need to effectively treat every child's cancer. We also commend his passion for fostering a robust cancer research workforce. While at the helm of NCI, Dr. Sharpless worked to ensure early-career investigators had access to funding to complete their research and continue their careers in oncology research. 

“We are grateful for Dr. Sharpless’ tireless work on behalf of people with cancer and wish him well as he continues his career in cancer research. ASCO looks forward to continuing our productive relationship with NCI in support of its important mission to advance scientific understanding of cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and survivorship.”