The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO recently announced the recipients of its 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium Merit Awards, which recognize leading oncology professionals for their work in the area of breast cancer research. This year, the Foundation honors 16 individuals for their research in the areas of breast cancer disease management, survivorship care, health-care disparities, and more. The recipients will be recognized at the 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium taking place September 13–15 in San Francisco.
“This year’s Merit Award recipients are helping to contribute to the growing body of clinical evidence in breast cancer that that helps patients live longer and have better outcomes,” said Gary Levine, MD, Chair of the Breast Cancer Symposium Steering Committee. “We are honored to recognize the scientific advances of this year’s recipients as well as their dedication to improving care for patients living with breast cancer.”
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Merit Awards are designed to promote clinical cancer research by young oncology investigators and provide them with the opportunity to present their research at the 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium, a multidisciplinary meeting for breast cancer clinicians and other oncology team members who treat and care for patients with breast cancer. This year’s Symposium will focus on taking the latest scientific results in the field and bringing them into the clinic for practical application.
The Breast Cancer Symposium Merit Award winners and the research they will be presenting at the Symposium include:
- Lisa Allen, MD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: Nomogram to predict sentinel lymph node involvement in patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
- Amanda Arrington, MD, City of Hope: Rural and urban disparities in the evolution of sentinel lymph node utilization in breast cancer.
- Conceicao Campos, MD, PhD, Escola Cearense de Oncologia: Hypofractionated breast irradiation in elderly cancer parients: A Brazilian pilot study.
- Farrah Datko, MD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Phase II study of pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and weekly paclitaxel in patients with HER2-overexpressing metastatic breast cancer (MBC).
- Rachel Farkas, MD, University of Rochester Medical Center: Axillary recurrence (AR) after negative sentinel node biopsy (SNB): Who is at risk?
- Oluwadamilola Fayanju, MD, MPHS, Washington University School of Medicine: Barriers to mammography among underserved women in a breast health center outreach program.
- Bruna Jardim, MSc, Henry Ford Health System: Response of angiogenic factors to the treatment with melatonin in breast cancer cell lines.
- Jiali Li, MD, PhD, University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center: Correlation of receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa b (RANK) expression in breast cancer (BC) at the time of diagnosis with recurrence-free survival (RFS) and risk of bone-dominant metastases (BDM) in the I-SPY 1 trial (CALGB 150007/150012; ACRIN 6657).
- Shai Libson, MD, Sylvester Cancer Center: Postmastectomy radiation for stage ll breast cancer patients with T1/T2 lesions.
- Herdee Gloriane Luna, MD, National Kidney and Transplant Institute: Association of dyslipidemia with the aggressive molecular subtypes and pathologic profile of newly diagnosed nonmetastatic breast cancer patients.
- Aimee Mackey, MD, Columbia University Medical Center: Experience with nipple-sparing mastectomy after prior whole-breast radiation.
- Jennifer Plichta, MD, Loyola University Health Systems: Does atypical ductal hyperplasia require 6 months of postoperative surveillance?
- Gregory Thompson, MD, University of Cincinnati: Axillary lymph node coverage of tangent radiotherapy: Comparison of supine versus prone positioning.
- Lori Uyeno, MD, City of Hope: Contralateral breast cancer: Effect of stage on survival after unilateral breast cancer.
- Barbara Wexelman, MD, MBA, St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital: Socioeconomic and geographic disparities in immediate reconstruction after mastectomy in the United States.
- John Wilkinson, MD, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine: Evaluation of current consensus panel guidelines for APBI: A pooled analysis of William Beaumont Hospital and American Society of Breast Surgeons MammoSite registry trial data.
The 2012 Breast Cancer Symposium Merit Awards are supported by Amgen, Astellas, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene Corporation, Lilly USA, LLC, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, Novartis Oncology, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals. ■
