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Conquer Cancer Foundation presents Merit Awards at ASCO
CHICAGO — The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO presented ASCO Annual Meeting Merit Awards to 125 oncology professionals.
The awards support oncology trainees who were first authors on abstracts selected for presentation at this year’s meeting.
“These Merit Awards are critical to support the research of early-career oncologists,” Suzanne George, MD, chair of ASCO’s scientific program committee, said in a press release. “The field of oncology depends on innovation to discover new and dramatic advances across the cancer care continuum, and supporting research from the time of oncology training onward is key to establishing a foundation for a career in cancer research. It is an honor to present these awards to such a remarkable group of oncology professionals in the early years of their career, whose findings are improving the quality of care for people with cancer.”
This year’s Merit Award recipients are:
• Jithma P. Abeykoon, MD, of Mayo Clinic;
• Iman Aboudalle, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Nour Abuhadra, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Mihaela Aldea, MD, PhD, of Institut Gustave Roussy;
• Mansour Alfayez, MD, MS, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Kartik Anand, MBBS, of Houston Methodist Cancer Center;
• Avani Athauda, MBBS, of The Royal Marsden Hospital;
• Florence Atrafi, MD, MSc, of Erasmus MC Cancer Institute;
• Dilip Sankar Babu, MD, of University of Rochester Medical Center;
• Marco Bandini, MD, of Vita-Salute San Raffaele University;
• Francesca Battaglin, MD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Keck School of Medicine;
• Jacob E. Berchuck, MD, of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute;
• David Alan Bond, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center;
• Maria Alessandra Calegari, MD, of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS;
• Kamal Chamoun, MD, of University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center;
• Bhavana Sree Vangara Chapman, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Fo-Ping Chen, PhD, of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center;
• Kelly Sharon Chien, MD, BS, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Mudit Chowdhary, MD, of Rush University Medical Center;
• Julie Marie Collins, MD, MPH, of NCI;
• Vincenza Conteduca, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute;
• Colleen Ann Cuthbert, PhD, of University of Calgary;
• Antonio Di Meglio, MD, of Institut Gustave Roussy;
• Brunella Di Stefano, MD, of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS;
• Nazli Dizman, MD, of City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center;
• Lawson Eng, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre;
• Kelly Faulk, MD, of University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado;
• Roberto Ferrara, MD, of Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS;
• Jason Frankel, MD, of Virginia Mason Medical Center;
• Ehsan Ghorani, MBBS, of University College London Cancer Institute;
• Smith Giri, MBBS, of Yale School of Medicine;
• Ashley Graul, MD, of University of Pennsylvania;
• Andrew W. Hahn, MD, of University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute;
• Anis Hamid, MBBS, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute;
• Ross Harrison, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Caroline Hesko, MD, MPH, BS, of University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital;
• Joshua Dean Horton, MD, of Medical University of South Carolina;
• Marco Adelmo James Iafolla, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre;
• Vikram Jairam, MD, of Yale University School of Medicine;
• Emre Koca, MD, of Houston Methodist Hospital;
• Igal Kushnir, MD, of Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre;
• Alessandro Leal, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center;
• Kah Poh Loh, MBBCh, of University of Rochester Medical Center;
• Jelena Lukovic, MD, MPH, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre;
• Jia-Wei Lv, MD, of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center;
• Eoghan Ruadh Malone, MBBCh, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre;
• Hiren A. Mandaliya, MD, MBBS, FRACP, of Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital;
• Federica Marmorino, MD, of Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana;
• Deborah Catherine Marshall, MD, of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai;
• Jingjing Miao, MSc, of Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center;
• Orli Michaeli, MD, of Hospital for Sick Children;
• Arjun Mittra, MBBS, of NCI;
• Leslie A. Modlin, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
• Sebastián Mondaca, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
• Maliha Nusrat, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Kaushal Parikh, MD, of Mayo Clinic;
• Woochan Park, MD, of Seoul National University Hospital;
• Javier Pascual, MD, of Royal Marsden Hospital and The Institute of Cancer Research;
• Ranjan Pathak, MBBS, of Yale School of Medicine;
• Meredith Pelster, MD, MSCI, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Kirstin Perdrizet, MD, of University of Toronto;
• Isabel Pimentel, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital — University of Toronto;
• David James Pinato, MD, PhD, MRCP, of Imperial College London;
• Ines Esteves Domingues Pires Da Silva, MD, of Melanoma Institute Australia;
• YaoYao Guan Pollock, MD, of Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, San Francisco;
• Pradeep Poonnen, MD, MPH, of Duke University Health System/Durham VA Medical Center;
• Hanneke Poort, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute;
• Prateek Prasanna, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University;
• Robert H. Press, MD, of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University;
• Irbaz Bin Riaz, MBBS, MS, of Mayo Clinic;
• Biagio Ricciuti, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute;
• Daniel R. Richardson, MD, MA, of The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research;
• Felicia Roncolato, FRACP, MBChB, PhD, of Macarthur Cancer Therapy Centre;
• Daniele Rossini, MD, of Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana;
• Maria M. Rubinstein, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
• Adam Jacob Schoenfeld, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center;
• Julia Katharina Schwarze, MD, of Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel;
• Andreas Seeber, MD, PhD, of Innsbruck Medical University;
• Matthew Seidler, MDCM, of Massachusetts General Hospital;
• Iris Yeong- Fung Sheng, MD, of Cleveland Clinic;
• Mina Shenouda, MBBch, of Marshall University;
• Ramila Shilpakar, MD, of NAMS, Bir hospital;
• Mahran Shoukier, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Surbhi Sidana, MD, of Mayo Clinic;
• Marissa K. Srour, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center;
• Tessa Gerjanne Steenbruggen, MD, of Netherlands Cancer Institute;
• Paul Stewart, MBBS, of Western University, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry;
• Paolo Strati, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Ryuma Tokunaga, MD, PhD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine;
• Panagiotis J. Vlachostergios, MD, PhD, of Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital;
• Yucai Wang, MD, PhD, of Mayo Clinic;
• Yuefeng Wang, MD, D.Phil, of University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center;
• AnnaLynn Williams, PhD, of University of Rochester Medical Center;
• Jason Willis, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
• Juliet Elizabeth Wolford, MD, of The University of California, Irvine;
• Michael H. Xiang, MD, PhD, of Stanford University;
• Hao Xie, MD, PhD, of Mayo Clinic;
• Yuan Xu, MD, PhD, of University of Calgary;
• Siddhartha Yadav, MD, FACP, of Mayo Clinic;
• Yunfang Yu, MD, of Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital and Sun Yat-sen University;
• Saurabh Zanwar, MBBS, MD, of Mayo Clinic; and
• Gemma Zucchelli, MD, of Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Pisana.
Special Merit Awards
Five trainees and junior faculty who had top-ranking abstracts received Special Merit Awards. Those recipients were: Dai Chihara, MD, PhD, of NCI, who received the Bradley Stuart Beller Endowed Merit Award for the highest ranking abstract overall; Sarah Abou Alaiwi, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who received the Allen S. Lichter, MD, Endowed Merit Award for the second highest ranking abstract overall; Po-Ju Lin, PhD, MPH, RD, of University of Rochester Medical Center, who received the Pain and Symptom Management Special Merit Award for the highest ranked abstract in pain and symptom management research; Adriana Fonseca, MD, of The Hospital for Sick Children, who received the Brigid Leventhal Special Merit Award for the top-ranking abstract in pediatric oncology; and Sumit Gupta, MD, PhD, of The Hospital for Sick Children, who received the James B. Nachman Endowed ASCO Junior Faculty Award in Pediatric Oncology for the highest scoring abstract in pediatric oncology.
Endowed and Named Merit Awards
The following individuals received Endowed and Named Merit Awards:
• Arti Hurria Merit Award in Geriatric Oncology — Ethan B. Ludmir, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• ASCO Employee Endowed Merit Award — Narjust Duma, MD, of Mayo Clinic, and also a HemOnc Today Next Gen Innovator.
• Dr. and Mrs. Douglas W. Blayney Endowed Merit Award — Sam Brondfield, MD, of University of California, San Francisco.
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Endowed Merit Awards — Hind Rafei, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Jay Y. Spiegel, MD, FRCPC, of Stanford University; and Natalie Vokes MD, MPhil, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
• Jonathan K. Cho, MD, and Cora Y. Cho Endowed Merit Award — Evan Thomas Hall, MD, MPhil, of Stanford University School of Medicine.
• Eisai Inc. Endowed Merit Award — Madiha Naseem, MD, of USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and Keck School of Medicine;
• Darla C. Ellis Women Who Conquer Cancer Endowed Merit Award — Evthokia Hobbs, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• Endowed Merit Award — Stephanie Dixon, MD, BS, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
• Epiphany Partners Inc. Endowed Merit Award — Stephen James Luen, MBChB, of Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
• GlaxoSmithKline Oncology Endowed Merit Award — Liang Huang, MD, PhD, of Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College and Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
• Howard E. Lessner, MD, Endowed Merit Award — Zaid Abdel Rahman, MD, of Mayo Clinic.
• Loxo Oncology Endowed Merit Award — Alberto Puccini, MD, of University of Southern California and Keck School of Medicine.
• Loxo Oncology Inc. Endowed Merit Award — Davis Yuri Torrejon, MD, of University of California Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Kathleen I. Pritchard, MD, Endowed Merit Award — Arlindo R. Ferreira, MD, MSc, of Institut Gustave Roussy.
• Sarah Cannon Research Institute Endowed Merit Award — Carina N. Owen, MBBS, of Melanoma Institute Australia.
• Frances A. Shepherd, MD, Endowed Merit Award in Lung Cancer — Robin Guo, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
• Sherwin Family Endowed Merit Awards — Matteo Lambertini, MD, of Policlinico San Martino Hospital — University of Genova; Ben O'Leary, MBBS, of Royal Marsden Hospital and The Institute of Cancer Research; and Daniel Olson, MD, of University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Drs. Rachna and Puneet Shroff Endowed Merit Award — Bo Zhang, MD, of National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College.
• Nizar M. Tannir, MD, Endowed Merit Award — Alec Paschalis, MBBS, BSc, of The Institute of Cancer Research.