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“There’s never been a better time to be a cancer researcher or to be a cancer doctor in the United States. The progress we’re making is staggering.”

This was the emphatic message of Norman “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., who previously served as the director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for five years, during a two-day visit to VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, as part of its recurring Director’s Distinguished Visiting Scholars Seminar Series.

During his visit, Sharpless participated in a community fireside chat open to the general public; engaged with Massey students and trainees through a conversational roundtable session; and led a presentation on his extensive research efforts geared toward cancer scientists and physicians.

The community discussion, hosted at The Jefferson Hotel on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, was co-moderated by Susann Brown, a member of the Chickahominy Indian Tribe and active Massey community partner, and Kim Rhoads, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., the associate director for community outreach and engagement at Massey. In alignment with Massey’s mission, the chat was designed to bring the community into the conversation around cancer research, medicine and funding.

Sharpless shared how community outreach initiatives and conducting cancer research that reflects a center’s specific catchment area — the geographic region where the majority of a cancer center’s patient population lives — “has become the standard that all the other National Institutes of Health departments now try to emulate.”

As one of only two NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in Virginia, Massey is a national leader in its community-focused mission to integrate community input into everything it does in order to close health care gaps and improve cancer outcomes.

“We need to continue to send a clear signal that the progress for patients with cancer [nationwide] is quite remarkable. Patients are not going to get left out in the lurch,” said Sharpless, a professor of cancer policy and innovation at the University of North Carolina. “What we do, we do it for patients…to end cancer suffering in this country for everyone.”

Rhoads added that continued advancements in cancer science, prevention and care for all individuals need to involve direct collaboration and communication with the communities served by each cancer center.

“We need to be working with young people, and the community, to understand what messaging actually works, what messages matter,” Rhoads said.

On Oct. 14, Sharpless met with a small group of early-career students and trainees at Massey for an informal and candid Q&A session dedicated to inspiring the next generation of cancer researchers and physicians.

Later that afternoon, Sharpless gave a presentation — “From Aerophobia to FDA Approval: The Story of Pharmacological Quiescence”— for a crowded theater at the Science Museum of Virginia. He elaborated on his involvement with multiple therapeutics companies and the ongoing investigation of a class of drugs known as CDK inhibitors in combination strategies to effectively treat cancer, particularly breast cancer.

Sharpless also shared how his teams’ efforts could lead to the development of the first drug to address clonal hematopoiesis, a condition where mutated stem cells multiply rapidly, increasing the risk for hematologic cancers.

Over the course of his stay in Richmond, Sharpless made it abundantly clear that he is not worried about the future of cancer research in the country.

“Cancer research is very popular in the U.S. It is a national priority,” Sharpless said. “While we still have a lot more progress to make, we have made a lot of progress.”

The next installment of the Director’s Distinguished Visiting Scholars Seminar Series is scheduled for February 24-25, 2026, featuring Reshma Jagsi, M.D., the chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University Winship Cancer Institute.

Written by: Blake Belden