The Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) today announced the 14 recipients of its 2012 Markers in Cancer Merit Awards. The Merit Awards recognize promising oncology researchers for their work in cancer biomarkers, which play a key role in the routine management of patients with cancer and guide drug development in the age of targeted therapy. Recipients will be recognized at Markers in Cancer 2012: A Joint Meeting by ASCO, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), taking place in Hollywood, Florida, on October 11-13.
"We are proud to honor this year's Merit Award winners for their outstanding contribution to a rapidly emerging and important advance in cancer patient care," said Martin J. Murphy, DMedSc, PhD, Chair, Conquer Cancer Foundation Board of Directors. "The research conducted by this year's recipients is designed to translate what is learned in the lab about a patient's tumor into clinical practice with the objective of personalizing patient care.
The 2012 Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Markers in Cancer Merit Award recipients include:
- Mona Lisa Alattar, MD, University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center
Response rates in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia with FLT3-ITD mutation using 5-azacitadine plus sorafenib.
- Aseem Bhatnagar, MBBS, S.M.S. Medical College & Attached Hospitals
A comparative study of monoclonal antibody against EGFR (nimotuzumab) used in combination with chemoradiation versus chemoradiation alone in the treatment of locally advanced inoperable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
- Heather Cheng, MD, PhD, University of Washington
Alteration of candidate circulating microRNA cancer biomarkers by blood sample processing.
- Jennifer Kanakry, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Cell-free EBV DNA in Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Aaron Mansfield, MD, Mayo Clinic
Immunomodulatory effects of bevacizumab in metastatic malignant melanoma.
- Joaquin Mateo, MD, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research
Correlation of oncogenic mutations in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and tumor tissue through a multiplex sequencing platform in patients under consideration for phase I trials.
- Ab Mir, MD, Maulana Azad Medical College
Prognostic and diagnostic significance of epigenetic alterations of p16 and DAPK1 promoter sequences in patients with epithelial ovarian carcinoma (EOC).
- Andrea Necchi, MD, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori
Interleukin-8 (IL8) and transforming growth-factor beta (TGF-β) as drugable biomarkers of response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) with pazopanib (PZP): A phase II study in relapsed urothelial cancer (UC).
- Palak Parekh, PhD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
Examining the reliability of surrogate tissue predictability of drug efficacy in reconstituted human 3D skin models containing melanomas.
- Gerald Prager, MD, Medical University of Vienna
CD98hc expression to predict prognosis in renal cell cancer.
- Melissa Rotunno, PhD, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
A blood-based gene expression signature of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.
- Andrew Trister, MD, PhD, University of Washington
Use of a novel patient-specific model of glioma growth kinetics to elucidate underlying biology as measured by gene expression microarray.
- Susannah Yovino, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Preliminary results of a biomarker discovery project for treatment-related brain injury (TRBI) in malignant glioma.
- Lindsey Zubritsky, MD, Penn State Hershey Medical Center
Elevated pretreatment serum activin A and progression-free and overall survival in trastuzumab-treated metastatic breast cancer.
The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Merit Awards are designed to promote clinical research by young scientists and provide fellows with an opportunity to present their research and interact with other clinical cancer investigators at scientific meetings. Recipients are selected based on the scientific merit of their abstracts and will present their research during the meeting.
