Stellar Leadership, Stellar Committees

With the start of the new NCTN grant cycle, 2026 has been a year of leadership transitions for SWOG. These include the appointment of a number of new committee-level leaders we haven’t previously had a chance to announce in Front Line.

We’ll start with Dr. Patrick A. Hagen, who was appointed in late 2025 as interim chair of our bone marrow and stem-cell transplant committee, when Dr. Patrick Stiff stepped back from that role. 

We’ve since updated the committee’s name to reflect the evolution of its scope, and we’ve made Dr. Hagen’s appointment permanent – he is now chair of SWOG’s transplant and cell therapies committee.

Dr. Hagen is also study chair of SWOG S2213, a phase 3 trial assessing the role of autologous stem cell transplant as part of consolidation therapy for patients newly diagnosed with AL amyloidosis.

In introducing Dr. Hagen in this role, we also want to thank Dr. Stiff, who chaired this committee from 2013 through 2025. Thank you, Dr. Stiff, for your vision, commitment, and collaborative prowess in guiding the committee’s core contributions to more than a decade of hematology advances in transplantation and cell-based therapies.

SWOG’s publications committee, which oversees the timely submission of all group publications in line with SWOG and NCI policies, also has a new chair, Dr. David P. Horowitz. 

A radiation oncologist whose work has included extensive collaboration with SWOG’s gastrointestinal committee, Dr. Horowitz began his term as publications committee chair in March, when former chair Dr. Hagen Kennecke was named executive officer for GI cancers and melanoma.

SWOG has two new committee vice chairs as well. The first is Dr. Brittany Rogers, who earlier this year was appointed vice chair of our veterans affairs (VA) committee. 

Dr. Rogers is primary investigator of SWOG’s newest VA Storefront consortium, based at the North Florida/South Georgia VA Medical Center, so she has broad experience in both the challenges facing VAMCs enrolling to trials and the ways in which SWOG and Hope programs are helping VAMCs address those challenges. 

(By the way, the SWOG/Hope Foundation VA Storefront Support Program is now accepting applications for our next VA Storefront award. The deadline for applying is October 2nd.)

Our other new vice chair is Dr. Jennifer E. Amengual, who was appointed vice chair of SWOG’s lymphoma committee earlier this summer.

Dr. Amengual is also study chair of SWOG S2207, a randomized phase 2 trial testing the addition of a targeted agent to standard therapy for patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma.  S2207 recently reopened after a major protocol revision, so if it hasn’t been on your radar for a while, it’s time to take another look.

Finally, Dr. Andrew K. Godwin has been named to lead translational medicine research within the SWOG breast committee, as chair of its TM subcommittee.

For insight into some of Dr. Godwin’s recent TM work with that committee, check out this new SWOG paper reporting that, for women enrolled to the RxPONDER trial who were younger than 55 years, blood levels of anti-Mullerian hormone were a more accurate predictor of adjuvant chemo benefit than either age or menopausal status. Dr. Godwin is senior author.

It’s through the work of our committees that SWOG carries out its mission of improving the lives of people with cancer. Stellar leadership is essential to making those committees shine. On that front, we can confidently report that we’re seeing stars.