David G. Mutch, M.D., the Ira C. and Judith Gall Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been named President-Elect II of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.
The society is a national medical specialty organization of physicians who are trained in the comprehensive management of women with malignancies of the reproductive tract. Its purpose is to improve the care of women with gynecologic cancer by encouraging research, disseminating knowledge that will raise the standards of practice in the prevention and treatment of gynecologic malignancies and cooperating with other organizations interested in women’s health care, oncology and related fields.
With his election, Mutch becomes a member of the society’s executive committee and will automatically ascend to its presidency in 2009. Prior to his selection as President-Elect II, Mutch served the society in a variety of leadership roles, including chairman of the education committee, annual meeting program chair and member of the council. Additionally, he was the society’s awards committee chair and raised more than $3 million for start-up research grants for young investigators.
Mutch also is director of the School of Medicine’s Division of Gynecologic Oncology, one of the largest divisions of its kind in the country. He is known for his research on gynecologic cancers, focusing in particular on cervical and endometrial cancers. Several years ago, Mutch’s team and others showed that a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is a more effective treatment for cervical cancer than either treatment alone.
Mutch also has been author or co-author on more than 150 scientific articles, and he is a reviewer for such journals as Gynecologic Oncology, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cancer, and Annals of Internal Medicine. Additionally, he is on the editorial board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Gynecologic Oncology and the Journal of Reproductive Sciences.
He is a member of several academic societies, including the Society of Gynecologic Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He chairs the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Cancer Committee.
Mutch earned a medical degree from the School of Medicine in 1980 and remained at the University for his internship and residency. He joined the University faculty in 1987 after spending three years in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center.
Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.