Dr. Pasche has served as president and Chief Executive Officer of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and chair of the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University since 2023. Before joining Karmanos, he served as director of the Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center (WFBCCC), principal investigator of the NCI CCSG award, and chair of the Department of Cancer Biology from 2014 until 2022. He was the first to identify and characterize TGFBR1*6A, an in-frame deletion within TGFBR1 exon 1, which has emerged as a low penetrance tumor susceptibility allele. Dr. Pasche is the co-inventor and principal developer of a novel medical device delivering amplitude-modulated radiofrequency electromagnetic fields for systemic targeted cancer treatment. The device is FDA-approved for the treatment of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma who fail first- and second-line therapy.
A native of Switzerland, Dr. Pasche earned his doctorate of medicine and doctorate of philosophy from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and another doctorate of medicine from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Pasche completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital at Cornell University Medical Center. He also went on to complete a hematology and oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a second postdoctoral fellowship at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) has continued its Community Conversations on Cancer series in 2025 in partnership with the Detroit Public Library. The program invites members of the public to dialogue about current cancer research and treatment, improved health outcomes, and a deep understanding of a cancer diagnosis. The 2025 series includes six events, each a collaborative, informative discussion introducing the community to a different asp...
With advances in treatment and screening for earlier detection, oncologists have improved cancer survival rates dramatically. That is excellent news, but the surging number of survivors means it is increasingly important for providers to focus more diligently on what patients need to thrive after treatment. In 2022, there were more than 18.1 million cancer survivors in the U.S., and by 2032, there will be more than 22.5 million, spotlighting the need to focus more closely on survivor quality of life. Su...
The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute held its first All Cancer Game, part of Strike Out Cancer Weekend, on Friday, May 23, 2025, at Comerica Park in collaboration with McLaren Health Care and the Detroit Tigers. The current leading team in the American League played its division rival, the Cleveland Guardians, during an evening commemorated as the All Cancer Game, where thousands gathered to support the fight against cancer. Cancer survivors who were patients at various Karmanos locations throughou...