Dr. Joe Ramos, who was hired by the Louisiana Cancer Research Center in 2022 to lead the state’s yearslong effort to secure a prestigious National Cancer Institute designation, is leaving for a new biomedical research position in California, raising questions about the future of the nonprofit research center on Tulane Avenue and its quest to obtain NCI status.
The cancer research center, known as LCRC, is a public-private partnership of researchers from LSU Health, Tulane University, Ochsner Health and Xavier University that is focused on ramping up the quality of cancer research and treatment in the state. Securing an NCI designation — which typically brings with it research dollars, biomedical jobs and patients from around the country seeking top-quality care — has been one of the center’s top priorities since its creation more than 20 years ago.
As CEO of the LCRC, Ramos, an expert in cancer signaling and metastasis who previously headed the University of Hawaii’s NCI-designated cancer center, was tasked with bringing the institutions closer together. In an interview this week, he said had he made progress in that area and is not leaving because of any obstacles he encountered. Rather, he said the opportunity to lead the Lundquist Institute, a biomedical research center at UCLA, was too good to pass up.
“They came to me, and I initially said no because the mission here was so important to me and still is,” he said. “Eventually, they came up with something I couldn’t refuse.”
Louisiana is still at least five years away from applying for NCI designation and LSU Health Chancellor Dr. Steve Nelson said he is concerned “we could lose our momentum” with Ramos’ departure.
“Joe has done a great job bringing everybody together,” Nelson said. “We don’t want that to fall apart.”
In a prepared statement, a spokesperson for Tulane said the university “remains committed to the LCRC’s efforts to secure NCI cancer designation for the state. This commitment is underscored by our founding partnership in the LCRC.”
The university’s representatives on the LCRC board declined to comment.
Going it alone?
The Louisiana Cancer Research Center was created in 2002 as a partnership between LSU and Tulane with money from the state’s tobacco tax. A 10-story, $85 million office building on Tulane Avenue was completed in 2012 and houses labs and offices for researchers from the two universities, as well as administrative offices. The center’s annual budget is $20 million, money that funds some of LSU and Tulane’s cancer-focused research projects.
Xavier University and Ochsner Health joined the partnership in 2019.
To achieve an NCI designation, research groups need to meet a series of stringent guidelines that are set by the National Institutes of Health. The guidelines include conducting lab research in several fields, transferring research into clinical practice, conducting innovative clinical trials in the community, and outreach, education and measurable outcomes. One guideline is that only a single university, not a consortium or partnership, can apply, which added a wrinkle to the broader vision in Louisiana.
Ramos said when he first arrived in mid-2022, he met with the NCI and asked them to reconsider the guidelines.
“But changing the mind of of the NIH is like changing the mind of IRS auditors,” he said.
Also in 2022, months before Ramos arrived, LSU and LCMC Health, the New Orleans hospital operator, announced they would seek an NCI designation on their own. LCMC, which was was not part of the cancer research center, and LSU would put $50 million each over five years into the effort.
In late 2023, Gov. John Bel Edwards joined dozens of officials from the LCRC, LSU, Tulane, LCMC Health and Xavier to announce a new agreement between the partners in the cancer research center that named LSU as the lead applicant for NCI designation. The financial commitment the university had made with LCMC Health was cited as one of the primary reasons for the decision.
As part of the deal, Ramos was named director of the LSU Health Cancer Center, which agreed to fund half his salary, and he began splitting his duties between the cancer research center and LSU.
In the 14 months since, Ramos said he has helped recruit five cancer researchers and two cancer doctors who now work at LSU and LCMC, respectively. He has also created outreach programs for rural communities around the state, which is on the NCI checklist, and created the framework for the NCI application process, LSU officials said.
But there is still a lot of work to be done around building up more programs and hiring some 40 researchers and physicians over the next few years. Even once all the pieces are in place, drafting the application can take more than a year. Then, there’s another year before the NIH decides whether to award the designation.
LSU will continue pursuing the designation even after Ramos’ departure later this month, Nelson said.
“Make no mistake: LSU is going for NCI designation,” Nelson said. “We hope that we can maintain the same relationship we presently have with LCRC but we are going one way or the other.”
Future plans
While LSU and LCMC pursue NCI designation, the other partners in the LCRC consortium are pursuing other goals in the area of cancer research and treatment. Last summer, Tulane announced a grant of up to $23 million — part of the Biden administration’s Cancer Moonshot program — for its MAGIC-SCAN, a high-resolution scanner that can detect cancer cells in tissues within minutes.
Ochsner has partnered with MD Anderson on a program that Ochsner officials say will give local patients access to the same kind of cutting-edge treatments available at the renowned Houston cancer center.
LSU officials say those efforts complement what they are doing with LCMC Health to pursue an NCI designation that they say will benefit the entire state.
“Our competition is not Tulane or Ochsner,” Nelson said. “It’s MD Anderson and UAB.”
After Ramos’ departure was announced, LSU named Dr. Lucio Miele, a cancer researcher and associate dean, as the new director of the LSU-LCMC Health Cancer Center. Miele has not been tapped by to replace Ramos as CEO of the LCRC and it’s not clear whether the board will name a new CEO. Dr. Richard DiCarlo, dean of the LSU School of Medicine and a member of the LCRC board, said the board will meet to discuss the issue in late January.
“We have just started the discussions about what the leadership of LCRC will look like after Joe leaves and whether Dr. Miele fill the same dual role,” DiCarlo said. “I think that’s been a very effective approach and created alignment. But that’s gonna be the LCRC’s decision.”