CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Dr. Charles Cleeland
Dr. Cleeland, M.D. Anderson's McCullough Professor of Cancer Research and recipient of the American Pain Society’s 2002 Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award, is a leader in the area of cancer symptom epidemiology, assessment and treatment. In addition to serving as Chair of the Department of Symptom Research, he also serves as director and chair of the scientific advisory board of the American Pain Foundation and senior scientific advisor of the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center in Supportive Cancer Care. He is a member and past president of the board of directors of the United States Cancer Pain Relief Committee and the American Pain Society.
Dr. Cleeland founded the Pain Research group in 1979 at the University of Wisconsin, and soon became an internationally recognized expert on the assessment and treatment of cancer pain. Dr. Cleeland and the Pain Research Group relocated to M. D. Anderson in 1996. In March 2002, the Pain Research Group became the Department of Symptom Research. The department integrates laboratory research to develop animal models of pain, fatigue, and cognitive impairment with descriptive research and interventional trials in patients. After graduating from Wesleyan University, he obtained his PhD in Clinical Psychology (Psychopharmacology) from Washington University and completed a NIH Post-Doctoral Fellow in Neuropsychology from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.
His current research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the American Cancer Society, includes several epidemiological studies of pain and other symptoms of cancer patients, laboratory studies of the mechanisms of pain and other symptoms, and clinical trials on pain relief skills for minority outpatients and their caregivers. His most recent efforts focus on quantifying the burden of multiple symptoms for cancer patients, identifying underlying mechanisms of cancer symptoms, and on national and international clinical trials in symptom management.
Dr. Cleeland's research is widely published. He has published numerous studies of the prevalence and severity of cancer pain, of U.S. and international symptom management practice patterns, and of patient, public and professional attitudes toward cancer pain and its treatment.
Dr. Charles Cleeland
U.T.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Department of Symptom Research
E-mail:
ccleeland@mdanderson.org
