Another physician who was laid off by the Nevada Cancer Institute is suing the Las Vegas nonprofit.
Dr. Wolfram Samlowski filed suit this week in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas charging breach of contract after he lost his job paying $375,000 per year on April 8.
This is at least the fourth lawsuit to be filed by professionals and staff against the institute over the April 8 layoffs of some 150 staff members or the firing of a doctor a few months earlier.
The Cancer Institute, hurt by declines in government funding and donations, says the staff cuts were necessary for it to survive.
Samlowski says he gave up a tenured full professorship at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute to join the Nevada Cancer Institute to build a melanoma and kidney cancer program at NCI in 2007.
The suit says Samlowski is highly regarded in his field and served as principal investigator at the Utah center’s Cancer Immunotherapy Program.
Working under a contract extending through June 2012, the suit says Samlowski was terminated without cause and in breach of his contract.
The suit charges his firing "irreparably harmed his career and his research."
Because of his dismissal, the suit says, his hospital privileges were suspended at Summerlin Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospitals San Martin Campus.
"Samlowski’s entire lab staff was terminated without any advance notice, the lab was shut down and all research was brought to an immediate stop,’’ the lawsuit adds. "Samlowski’s ongoing clinical trials came to an abrupt halt and ended patient access to important new agents in melanoma and renal cancer, including some patients that were in the middle of treatment.’’
The suit also alleges that his firing threatened prospective contractual relationships between the doctor and "various third parties relating to his lab research and clinical trials."
Samlowski is represented in the lawsuit by Las Vegas attorney Lawrence Semenza, who also represents laid-off workers in a class-action suit against the Cancer Institute.
The Cancer Institute has not yet responded in court to the lawsuit and its policy is to not comment on lawsuits.