Executive Director, University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Juan, PR.
Email: l.clavell@cccupr.org
Complete list of publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1V5LHzSZNyDgtp/bibliography/57185552/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending
Currently acting Executive Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Puerto Rico with the objectives of promoting its three areas of responsibilities; Cancer Control & Population Sciences, Cancer Biology and Cancer Medicine. Identified areas of core development; disparities in Puerto Rican population and its progressive eradication; infectious disease related malignancies, there prevention and early detection; evidence-based evaluation of precision medicine variation in our population; evaluation of immunotherapy modalities in our diverse population as defined by ancestry by their effectiveness and toxicity profile; improved definition of cancer risk in our population, biological and environmental factors. Responsible for executing the Children’s Oncology Group mission to cure and prevent childhood and adolescent cancer through scientific discovery and compassionate care. Developing methods for population wide cancer risk estimation based on newborn blood spot test. Dr. Clavell has over 35 years participation in prospective clinical trials, as PI for the Pediatric Oncology Group, and the subsequent legacy, PI for the Children’s Oncology Group and the Dana Farber Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Consortia. Trained and contributed in the fields of cell biology, monoclonal antibodies and metabolomics and transitioning to translational research in the field of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Committed to translational and clinical investigation as the mechanism to improve our understanding of disease mechanism, identify new modalities of treatment, and evaluate its effectiveness and clinical applicability. Initiated the participation and enrollment of Puerto Rican children in NCI sponsored clinical trials in the 1980 and achieving material improvement in outcomes. Encounter the HIV epidemic early, due to contamination of the blood supply, contributed to the early intervention to control the impact of the epidemic without affecting the pediatric oncology patient population clinical trials and outcomes. Actively involved in protocol design and execution, with an effective continues improvement process with validated compliance excellence, achieved with in an environment of limited resources. Implemented, maintained and continued improvement in medical and nursing care to maximize patient safety, while activating complex intensive treatment protocols that required complex supportive care measures. Extended the community outreach program to enhance community education for protocol participation, early recognition and prompt disease management. Established and developed AYA and long term follow up clinic adhering to NCCN guidelines. Dr. Clavell is currently one of the PIs of the Puerto Rico Community Oncology Research Program (PR-NCORP). The PR-NCORP offers new opportunities to consolidate and increase participation in clinical trials, cancer control, outcome measurement and cancer care delivery research with our known objective identifying and eliminating barrier that may be causes of disparity.