James Mohler Appears Before Senate Committee On Foreign Relations

Roswell Park’s Dr. James Mohler Testified Today on Early Release of Convicted Pan Am Flight 103 Bomber.

James Mohler, MD, Associate Director and Senior Vice-President for Translational Research and Chair of the Department of Urology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, testified today as a medical expert at a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on a Scottish court’s decision last year to release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from prison for medical reasons. Megrahi was convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The December 1988 bombing killed 270 people, including many residents of Upstate New York.

Megrahi, now 58, was being treated for advanced prostate cancer at the time of his early release from prison on “compassionate” grounds in August 2009.

In addition to his posts at Roswell Park, Dr. Mohler is also Chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines Panel for Prostate Cancer; Vice-Chair of the Genito-Urinary Committee and Chair of the Genito-Urinary Surgery Subcommittee of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB); and Past-President of the Society for Basic Urologic Research. He is a member of the American Medical Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for Cancer Research, American Urological Association and American College of Surgeons.

Presiding over the hearing was Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, who is leading an investigation into Megrahi’s release.

The hearing was held Wednesday, September 29, 2010 in 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.

Read Dr. Mohler's prepared remarks.