Michael S. Gordon, M.D., has been named the new medical director for the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials program at Scottsdale Healthcare. Gordon will oversee the center's phase I clinical trials program. Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials at Scottsdale Healthcare, a partnership with Translational Genomics Research Institute, is a clinical research site for phase I studies of new cancer drugs.

Gordon is a medical oncologist who is CEO of Pinnacle Oncology Hematology, a division of Arizona Center for Cancer Care, in Scottsdale, focusing on translational research and the care and management of cancer patients seeking phase I and phase II clinical trials. He also is a clinical professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix.

Gordon's principal research interests are in development of new cancer therapies with a focus on targeted and immunologic therapies as well as drugs that affect angiogenesis (tumor blood vessel supply). Avastin, Perjeta and Neumega are among the drugs Gordon has helped validate for FDA approval. His disease focuses include kidney cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and ovarian cancer.