Allen S. Lichter, M.D., was appointed Dean of the Medical School effective May 1, 1999, after serving as interim Dean from December 1, 1998. Dr. Lichter served as Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School from 1984 to 1997. He also served as Director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center until 1991. Prior to 1984, he was the Director of the Radiation Therapy Section of the National Cancer Institute's Radiation Oncology Branch. Dr. Lichter received his B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1968 and his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1972. He did his internship at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver and completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of California in San Francisco in 1976.

Dr. Lichter is internationally known for his research in the treatment of breast cancer. While at the NCI, he was an early advocate of the lumpectomy approach to the treatment of breast cancer and conducted one of the trials that found the use of the lumpectomy and radiation therapy to be as effective as the traditional treatment of mastectomy. This work, along with other trials conducted in the U.S. and Europe, led to a revolution in modern breast cancer treatment standards, emphasizing breast preservation. Dr. Lichter is an acknowledged expert in the area of breast cancer, having written numerous scientific papers on the subject.

In addition, under Dr. Lichter's leadership, the University of Michigan created one of the first systems for three-dimensional treatment planning and dose distribution which uses stacked X-ray sliced images of organs or sections of the body to recreate the patient's anatomy on the computer. This breakthrough in treatment allowed doctors to direct radiation to the tumor more precisely, thus sparing healthy tissue as much as possible. This pioneering work helped redefine the technical delivery of radiation therapy and is now used widely.

Dr. Lichter is a past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the largest and most active physician oncology society in the world. He is only the second radiation oncologist to be elected to this prestigious position. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology and is on the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

While publishing numerous journal articles and book chapters concerning his work, Dr. Lichter served for 11 years as one of the associate editors on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the world's leading cancer journal. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, and has been an editor of two books on breast cancer. Dr. Lichter is also co-editor of the textbook Clinical Oncology which was first published in 1995 and is now in the planning stages for its third edition.

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