Outstanding Physician-Scientists Win Young Investigator Awards

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and Conquer Cancer Foundation have recognized seven oncology trainees from the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer (HICCC) with Young Investigator Awards (YIA) and Merit Awards. The recipients were selected for their outstanding research in several diverse areas across cancer, including opioid misuse in cancer pain management, focused ultrasound for drug delivery to the brain and health disparities research in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Kara Cicero, MD; Jacob Cogan, MD; Mariam El-Ashmawy, MD, PhD; Matthew Gallitto, MD; and Wen-Hsuan Lin, MD, PhD, have each won YIAs for their innovative projects. ASCO Merit Awards were given to Dr. Cogan, Sminu Bose, MD, and Yoanna Pumpalova, MD for high-quality scientific abstracts. The recipients will be honored at the ASCO Annual Meeting held in Chicago, June 3 to 7. 

The Young Investigator Award provides funding to promising investigators to encourage and promote quality research in clinical oncology. The aim of the award, guided by a scientific mentor at the awardee’s institution, is to support physicians during the transition from a fellowship program to a faculty appointment. The ASCO Merit Award is given to a limited number of  fellows or oncology trainees whose research is addressed in high-quality abstracts submitted to an ASCO Meeting and recognized for its scientific merit. 

"We congratulate this year’s awardees who are making strides in advancing cancer research and care in such a diverse array of disciplines,” says Gary Schwartz, MD, chief of Columbia University Irving Medical Center's Division of Hematology and Oncology and deputy director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Our success reflects the high quality of our trainees and the partnerships they have formed with outstanding faculty—mentors—who represent leaders of cancer medicine today."

Congratulations to the award recipients! 

Young Investigator Award: 

Kara Cicero, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology) 
Mentors: Alfred Neugut, MD, and Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD

Project: "Prevalence and Risk Factors of Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance in a Black Sub-Saharan African Population"
Focusing on patient cohorts in Eswatini, Dr. Cicero is investigating racial disparities behind why multiple myeloma and its precursor, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), both occur twice as often within Black populations compared to whites. 

Jacob Cogan, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology)
Mentor: Dawn Hershman, MD 

Project: “Efficacy of a Password-protected, Pill-dispensing Device with Mail Return Capacity to Enhance Disposal of Unused Opioids after Cancer Surgery.”  
Opioid misuse is a public health crisis, and unused post-operative opioids are an important source. While 70% of pills prescribed go unused, only 9% are disposed. Dr. Cogan evaluated whether an inexpensive pill-dispensing device could enhance disposal of unused opioids after cancer surgery. Given the encouraging data from the pilot study, for which Dr. Cogan received an ASCO Merit Award this year, the YIA will support a larger follow up study to further evaluate the potential of the device to improve the safety and efficacy of opioid use after cancer-related surgery. 

Mariam El-Ashmawy, MD, PhD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology) 
Mentor: Adam Bass, MD  

Project: ”Development of Therapeutic Strategies with Direct RAS Inhibitors in KRAS Amplified Gastroesophageal Cancer“ 
On average, patients with metastatic gastric and esophageal cancers survive approximately one year, and those who have a KRAS-mutated cancer often have aggressive disease that is more resistant to therapy. This project will test a combination of exciting anti-cancer drug therapies that function by blocking KRAS oncogene directly and inhibiting its activation in gastric and esophageal cancer.  

Matthew Gallitto, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in radiation oncology  
Mentors: Cheng-Chia Wu, MD, Elisa Konofagou, PhD and Zhiguo Zhang, PhD 

Project: “Focused ultrasound-enhanced STAT3 inhibition and radiosensitization for diffuse midline glioma” 
Diffuse midline glioma is the most aggressive childhood brain tumor. These tumors extend to parts of the brain in which the blood brain barrier (BBB) remains intact, preventing drugs from crossing out of the bloodstream and into the brain. Addressing this challenge, Dr. Gallitto will study the use of focused ultrasound (FUS), using non-invasive acoustic sound waves to mechanically disrupt the BBB to enhance drug delivery. The goal is to introduce a new approach to treating this devastating pediatric disease and also address barriers that prevent optimal drug delivery. 

Wen-Hsuan Wendy Lin, MD, PhD, research pathway resident in pathology   
Mentor: Teresa Palomero, PhD  

Project: "Targeting the Tumor Microenvironment by Duvelisib in Peripheral T-cell lymphomas”   
Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) are aggressive blood cancers that show poor responses to conventional chemotherapy. Using cutting-edge technologies, including single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial analysis, Dr. Lin will characterize the tumor microenvironment associated with different genetic driver mutations in PTCL patient specimens and mouse models. These findings will help identify biomarkers in the tumor microenvironment that can be used to design novel PTCL-specific treatments and to evaluate the in vivo therapeutic mechanism of duvelisib, a promising drug currently in clinical trials to treat PTCL. 

Merit Award: 

Sminu Bose, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology) 
Mentors: Matthew Ingham, MD, and Gary Schwartz, MD 

Project: “Correlative results from NCI protocol 10250: A phase II study of olaparib (O) and temozolomide (T) for the treatment of advanced uterine leiomyosarcoma (uLMS)” 
New treatments for advanced uterine leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer, are much needed since current anti-cancer therapy with chemotherapy alone or immunotherapy have shown minimal benefits. A new phase 2 clinical trial that tested a novel combination therapy for uterine leiomyosarcoma with olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, and temozolomide, a chemotherapy drug, demonstrates the potential of targeted therapy to treat this devastating disease. At the ASCO annual meeting, Dr. Bose and collaborators will report the results analyzed from biopsies performed before and during treatment which provide insight into which patients may benefit the most from this novel drug combination. 

Jacob Cogan, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology) 
Mentor: Dawn Hershman, MD 

Project: “Efficacy of a Password-protected, Pill-dispensing Device with Mail Return Capacity to Enhance Disposal of Unused Opioids after Cancer Surgery”  
Opioid misuse is a public health crisis, and unused post-operative opioids are an important source. While 70% of pills prescribed go unused, only 9% are disposed. In a pilot study, Dr. Cogan evaluated whether an inexpensive pill-dispensing device with mail return capacity could enhance disposal of unused opioids after cancer surgery. The study found that this is a feasible strategy and did improve the disposal of unused post-operative opioids. 

Yoanna S. Pumpalova, MD, postdoctoral clinical fellow in medicine (hematology/oncology) 
Mentor: Alfred Neugut, MD 

Project: “Predictors of Overall Survival Among Black South African Men treated with ADT for Metastatic Prostate Cancer” 
Men in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by prostate cancer (PCa), and many have metastatic disease (mPCa) at diagnosis. In sub-Saharan Africa, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the first-line treatment for mPCa, and often the only available therapy; treatment failure and death are common. This project identified predictors of overall survival in Black South African men with mPCa on ADT. These factors could be used to select patients early on to advance from ADT to a chemotherapy regimen to improve outcomes.