Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has named Richard Peek Jr., MD, co-leader of its Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Program alongside Kristen Ciombor, MD.
Dr. Peek is professor of medicine and director of the division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt Health. He also holds the Mina Cobb Wallace Chair in Immunology, according to a May 20 news release.
Dr. Ciombor assumed leadership of the program in 2025. She is an associate professor of medicine in Vanderbilt’s division of hematology and oncology and has been a faculty member since 2017. She leads multiple national investigator-initiated clinical trials in colorectal cancer and serves as chair of the Colorectal/Anal Working Group for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group.
Dr. Peek has led Vanderbilt’s division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition since 2004. During his tenure, the division tripled in size and expanded its National Institutes of Health research portfolio to more than $11 million annually.
Gastrointestinal cancers remain a priority for the cancer center because incidence and mortality rates in the region exceed national averages, according to the release.
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