NCCN Foundation presents grants to six researchers

The NCCN Foundation presented $150,000, two-year grants to six oncology researchers from National Comprehensive Cancer Network member institutions.

“The NCCN Foundation is proud to foster the development of six promising oncology investigators,” Gary J. Weyhmuller, executive vice president and chief operating officer of NCCN, said in a press release. “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.”

The recipients and their research initiatives are:

James Blachly, MD, of 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, of 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, of Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center — a multimodal intervention to address sexual dysfunction in hematopoietic stem cell transplant;

Douglas Johnson, MD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center — Survivorship in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors;

Todd Morgan, MD, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center — Tissue-based genomics for risk stratification in localized renal cell carcinoma; and

Alpa Nick, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — Matched pair pharmacodynamics and feasibility study of pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy in frontline ovarian cancer.