Newswise — FORT WASHINGTON, PA — The NCCN Foundation®, which, through philanthropy empowers people through knowledge and advances the mission of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of care provided to people with cancer, has awarded grants to six young investigators from NCCN Member Institutions.
These awardees, who are dedicated to advancing and discovering new treatments for cancer, enhancing quality, and improving patient education, represent the fifth series of the NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards—a program initiated in 2011. The grants will provide $150,000 in funding over a two-year period, beginning in July 2015.
“The NCCN Foundation is proud to foster the development of six promising oncology investigators,” said Gary J. Weyhmuller, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, NCCN. “The support of the NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards will indeed provide the opportunity for these young researchers to further high-quality research and improve the lives of people with cancer.”
Following are the 2015 NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards recipients:
• James Blachly, MD, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Genomic Stratification and Prognostication of Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Combination Mutation Status• Roisin Connolly, MB, BCh, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Harnessing the Immune System to Treat Breast Cancer: Novel Mechanisms of Resistance and Treatment Strategies• Areej El-Jawahri, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, A Multimodal Intervention to Address Sexual Dysfunction in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors• Douglas Johnson, MD, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Survivorship in Patients Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors• Todd Morgan, MD, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Tissue-Based Genomics for Risk Stratification in Localized Renal Cell Carcinoma• Alpa Nick, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Matched Pair Pharmacodynamics and Feasibility Study of Pembrolizumab in Combination with Chemotherapy in Frontline Ovarian Cancer
The awardees responded to a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the NCCN Foundation to the NCCN Member Institutions. All submissions were reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel of oncology experts, and the awardees were selected based on several key components, including scientific merit and study design. The studies will be managed and overseen by the NCCN Oncology Research Program (ORP).
Since their inception in 2011, NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards have been received by 23 individuals. In March 2015, NCCN featured abstracts highlighting the work of the third series of Young Investigator Awards at the NCCN General Poster Sessions during the NCCN 20th Annual Conference: Advancing the Standard of Cancer Care™.
The 2015 NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards were made possible through support from AbbVie, Amgen, Genentech, Gilead, Merck, Millennium, Pfizer, and Sigma-Tau.
For more information about the NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Awards, visit NCCN.org.
### About the National Comprehensive Cancer NetworkThe National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), a not-for-profit alliance of 26 of the world’s leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education, is dedicated to improving the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer care so that patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers.
The NCCN Member Institutions are: Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, Omaha, NE; Case Comprehensive Cancer Center/University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland, OH; City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA; Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center | Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA; Duke Cancer Institute, Durham, NC; Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, WA; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, Phoenix/Scottsdale, AZ, Jacksonville, FL, and Rochester, MN; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL; The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, Columbus, OH; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN; Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, CA; University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL; UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA; UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA; University of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, CO; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN; and Yale Cancer Center/Smilow Cancer Hospital, New Haven, CT.
Clinicians, visit NCCN.org. Patients and caregivers, visit NCCN.org/patients.
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