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Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research at
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and the
first director of the Ludwig
Cancer Center there.
Also at the SWCRF
Robert A. Weinberg,
Symposium,
Siddhartha
PhD
Mukherjee, MD, PhD,
assistant professor of medicine at the Irving
Cancer Research Center at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center, received the
Distinguished Service Award for generating
widespread public interest in cancer research
through his book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography
of Cancer, which inspired the recent PBS
documentary “Cancer: The Emperor of All
Maladies.”
Runyon Fellows are:
• Lacy J. Barton, PhD, New York University
School of Medicine Skirball Institute of
Biomolecular Medicine, New York City,
New York
• Danfeng Cai, PhD, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, Maryland
• Gina V. Caldas, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester,
Massachusetts
• Qi Hu, PhD, University of California, San
Francisco, California
American Cancer Society
Presents 2015 Leadership in
Oncology Social Work Award
Tara Schapmire, PhD, MSSW, assistant professor at the University of Louisville School of
Medicine and an affiliated faculty member at
Kent School of Social Work, has received the
Association of Oncology
Social Work/American
Cancer Society Leadership
in Oncology Social Work
Award for 2015. Dr. Schapmire was recognized for
her contributions to the
field of oncology social work and leadership
through administration, education, clinical
practice, and research. Dr. Schapmire is also
co-investigator for a five-year, $1.5-million
National Cancer Institute grant to create and
evaluate an interdisciplinary oncology palliative care curriculum, as well as co-investigator
of the $7.5-million Kentucky LEADS Collaborative, a project dedicated to reducing the
burden of lung cancer in Kentucky through
community-based interventions to educate
providers, care for survivors, and promote
prevention through early lung cancer detection efforts.
• Allison N. Lau, PhD, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• June-Yong Lee, PhD, New York University
School of Medicine Skirball Institute of
Biomolecular Medicine, New York City,
New York
• Kathrin Leppek, PhD, Stanford University, Stanford, California
• Tera C. Levin, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
• Lyndsay M. Murrow, PhD, University of
California, San Francisco, California
• Vu Quang Nguyen, PhD, Howard Hughes
Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research
Campus, Ashburn, Virginia
Damon Runyon Cancer
Research Foundation Grants
Fellowship Awards to 16
Young Scientists
The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has named 16 young scientists
as its Spring Fellows. The recipients of these
four-year awards will receive grants totaling
more than $3.3 million to support their basic
and translational cancer research, ranging
from studying how cells in the tumor microenvironment impact response to anti-cancer
therapy to understanding how immune cells
abnormally proliferate. The 2015 Damon
18
ASH Clinical News
to the evaluation and pricing of drugs in the
United States. ICER will produce public reports on new drugs that have the potential to
significantly change patient care and health
system budgets. Each report will include a
full analysis of a drug’s comparative effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and potential
budget impact. With the new funding, ICER
will double its staff and produce more public
reports suggesting benchmark prices for up to
20 drugs over the next two years.
“We need prices that make sense,” said
ICER President Steven Pearson, MD. “Right
now, it’s often a black box: we don’t know if
we are getting good value with new drugs at
these higher prices. With the Laura and John
Arnold Foundation’s support, ICER hopes to
create a path toward a future in which prices
better mirror how much better a new drug
actually is in improving patients’ lives.”
Source: Institute for Clinical and Economic Review press release
--• Alistair B. Russell, PhD, Fred Hutchinson
Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
• Joseph D. Schonhoft, PhD, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
• Justin L. Sparks, PhD, Harvard Medical
School, Boston, Massachusetts
Source: University of Louisville School of Medicine news release
---
—STEVEN PEARSON, MD
• Bryan C. King, PhD, Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center, New York City,
New York
Source: Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation press release
---
“Right now, it’s
often a black box:
we don’t know
if we are getting
good value with
new drugs at these
higher prices.”
• Neil T. Umbreit, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
• Swathi Yadlapalli, PhD, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor
Source: Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation press release
---
ICER Receives $5.2 Million
Award to Launch New Drug
Assessment Program
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a nonprofit health-care research
organization, has received a $5.2-million grant
from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation
to launch a program to create a new approach
Mayo Clinic Receives $11
Million from NCI to Study
Cancer Survivorship
Mayo Clinic has received a five-year, $11-million grant from the National Cancer Institute
to study survivorship in patients with nonHodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The Lymphoma
Epidemiology of Outcomes Cohort Study will
enroll 12,000 patients with NHL. The study
will follow these patients for long-term prognosis and survivorship.
“With an increasing number of Americans
living with NHL, we need to find new and better ways to improve the length and quality of
their lives,” said James Cerhan, MD, PhD, the
study’s principal investigator and an epidemiologist at Mayo Clinic, in a press release.
The grant involves collaboration among
multiple institutions, including lymphoma
experts from Mayo Clinic, the University of
Iowa, Emory University/Grady Health System,
MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University
of Wisconsin, Cornell University, and the
University of Miami Health System/Jackson
Memorial Hospital. ●
Source: Mayo Clinic press release
September 2015