To the members of the AHNS Cutaneous Cancer Section,
The May AHNS meeting at COSM marks the term end for the current Cutaneous Section officers. For the next three-year term beginning at the close of the meeting, we have the following slate of candidates:
Running for Section Chair
Thomas J. Ow, MD
Running for Vice Chair
Karen Choi, MD
Alice Lin, MD
Vivian Wu, MD
Please review the statements from the candidates below and cast your vote at the bottom of this page. Voting will close on Monday, April 29th at 5:00pm Eastern. Thank you for your participation!
For Section Chair
Statement from Dr. Ow: I am a head and neck surgeon and translational investigator at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Head and neck cutaneous malignancies are a primary focus of my clinical practice, and I work closely with our integrated multidisciplinary team at the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center to serve patients in the Bronx, as well as throughout the New York Metropolitan area. I have been part of the leadership team for the Cutaneous Cancer Section of the AHNS for the last 6 years, having the pleasure to have served previously as the Education Chair, and most recently as the section Vice Chair.
As Chair of the Cutaneous Cancer Section it is my intention to maintain the excellent education, research, and public outreach programs that have been established. In addition, I plan to further leverage the expertise of our leadership team and section membership to accomplish the following goals:
- Promote AHNS members and head and neck surgeons as leaders in the care of patients with head and neck cutaneous malignancies through education, research, and public outreach efforts.
- Engage our membership to spearhead the development of crucial position statements and practice guidelines, thereby advancing the standard of care for patients with cutaneous cancer.
- Foster increased multidisciplinary and international collaboration between the AHNS and esteemed national and international partners, with the shared goal of optimizing patient care for those affected by cutaneous cancer.
I am very honored to serve in this role, and I am excited to help our section continue to grow.
For Section Vice Chair
Statement from Dr. Choi: I am a head and neck surgeon who recently joined the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center with a clinical focus on the management of high-risk cutaneous malignancies. At my prior institution, I was the primary head and neck surgeon managing high-risk cutaneous malignancies and led the skin oncology program in collaboration with surgical oncology, Mohs surgeons, dermatologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists. I have been an active member of the Cutaneous Cancer Section of the AHNS since its establishment, first serving as Member Co-Chair and now as the Education Chair. In these roles, I spearheaded and organized the section’s monthly blog contributions to the AHNS Heads Up! Website, recruiting section members to highlight important topics we face routinely as surgeons. I assisted with the section’s involvement in the skin-focused Virtual Tumor Boards and Journal Clubs. I also coordinated and developed the curriculum for the Cutaneous Cancer Section’s webinar on “Exploring Controversies in Management of Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma of the Head and Neck” presented in May 2023, and have been developing the curriculum for the upcoming webinar on “New Concepts for Management of Regionally Advanced Merkel Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck” scheduled for July 2024. If elected as Vice Chair for the Cutaneous Cancer Section, I will serve to promote the mission and goals of the society and the section. Through this role, three goals I will strive to promote are: 1) increase engagement within the membership by promoting opportunities for visibility in section activities and initiatives particularly with younger faculty and trainees, 2) foster collaborations within the AHNS and with other specialties, such as dermatology and surgical oncology, to promote an evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach to providing the highest-quality care for patients with high-risk cutaneous malignancies, and 3) brainstorm prospective research collaborations to explore important clinical questions vital to advancing our management of these cancers. I have been honored to be a part of the leadership team thus far and am excited for what lays ahead for the section. Thank you for your consideration.
Statement from Dr. Lin: I have been a head and neck and reconstructive surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles for almost 10 years and taking care of skin cancer with ablation and reconstruction for my sunny Californian patients has been a large part of my practice. I have been amazed that such a large portion of them are extremely elderly patient who have had a Californian propensity for an active and healthy lifestyle but are plagued with high risk and recurrent skin cancers due to the lack of knowledge and education that was available in the past. Thus, patient education became my passion and I became involved with the executive board of the cutaneous section of AHNS through my desire to increase the amount of patient education available to all patients.
I have been lucky enough to have been able to be involved in several projects through the cutaneous section such as AHNS Position statements, May skin care awareness campaigns, patient education material and instructional videos and I have been acting as the liaison for the cutaneous section to CDMS [Curriculum Development & Maintenance Service] in organizing the virtual tumor boards for the fellows as well as various cutaneous cancer related curriculum updates. Through my work in the cutaneous section, I was also able to join collaborative projects to publish reviews on skin malignancy especially with the introduction of Immunotherapy.
Skin cancer is an exciting field with many new interventions and protocols available. I hope to continue to advance the field as well as clearly define and promote the role of the head and neck surgeon. This includes:
- improvement of the system for multidisciplinary care
- collaboration with other specialties such as dermatology and medical oncology for research and education
- patient and public education to make an impact on the health care problem and to also increase awareness
- promote the head and neck surgeon and to continue our role as the leader in the care of high risk skin cancer
Thank you for your consideration for the position of Vice Chair of the cutaneous section. I hope to continue to be able to support this board and section to the best of my abilities.
Statement from Dr. Wu: I am a head and neck surgeon with the Henry Ford Health System and developed my passion to care for the skin cancer patient population during my fellowship training at the University of Michigan. Currently, I serve as a surgeon lead of our Cutaneous Oncology Tumor Board as well as key contributor towards the Melanoma Care Pathway. I maintain a robust cutaneous oncology practice and frequently provide system-wide didactics on the range of issues pertinent to this area of practice. While somewhat new to the Cutaneous Section Leadership, I have been involved in a number of section activities including: cutaneous service representative of the Neck Dissection Classification Committee, contributor towards the AHNS Position Statement on Standardized Pathologic Reporting for Resection Specimens of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck and Case Presenter for AHNS Cutaneous Section Virtual Tumor Board on Advanced Skin Cancers: Primary, Metastasis and Immunotherapy.
These projects are demonstrative of the Cutaneous Oncology Section’s commitment to improving patient care through education, advocacy and research. As Vice Chair, I hope to continue to champion the current pursuits of the section as well as develop projects that build on the multidisciplinary nature of cutaneous malignancies of the head and neck. I would rally around future endeavors that involve:
- Further defining the surgeon’s role after neoadjuvant treatment of advanced skin cancers
- Patient reported outcomes regarding skin excisions and reconstruction.
- Fostering skilled communications that frame the goals of care discussions with geriatric patients and their families
- Developing protocols to partner with transplant medicine for skin cancer screening.
- Promoting more international collaborations so that we can learn from each other.
There so much to do in this space! It would be a privilege to continue to support the work of this section as Vice Chair. I appreciate your consideration.