On May 21, 2007, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) announced that Grover Bagby, M.D., after 15 years as the founding director of the OHSU Cancer Institute, had retired.

Brian Druker, M.D., the world-renowned cancer specialist who helped develop the cancer pill Gleevec was named the new director of the OHSU Cancer Institute, now known as the Knight Cancer Institute.

Currently Oregon’s cancer mortality rate is about average, but pushing it below Utah’s rate of 144.9 cancer deaths per 100,000 population annually would mean preventing one out of four cancer deaths in Oregon.