Alexandria, Va. — Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, is pleased to announce the recipients of two mentorship awards distributed through the Women Who Conquer Cancer initiative.

Sharon H. Giordano, MD, MPH, FASCO, will receive the Hologic, Inc., Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. Ines Vaz-Luis, MD, PhD, will receive the 2024 International Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award recipient.

The 2024 Women Who Conquer Cancer (WWCC) Mentorship Awards recognize women in oncology who are leaders, role models and mentors to other women training to be cancer clinicians, educators, or researchers. WWCC supports and celebrates women dedicated to advancing the discoveries of oncology’s emerging female leaders.

The honorees, who were selected from a remarkable group of nominees, will be recognized during the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, May 31 – June 4.  

Hologic, Inc Endowed Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award

Dr. Giordano is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with breast cancer. She serves as the Colin Powell Chair for Cancer Research, Chair of the Department of Health Services Research, and a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her work focuses on quality of health care delivery, disparities, male breast cancer, and outcomes for breast cancer patients. She is currently funded through NCI, CPRIT and Susan G. Komen. Dr. Giordano serves on the NCCN Breast Cancer Guidelines Panel and co-Chairs several of ASCO’s breast cancer clinical practice guidelines. She is dedicated to mentoring and developing the careers of trainees and junior faculty. Dr. Giordano’s work in mentoring was recognized with the Cancer Medicine Mentor of the Year Award and the MD Anderson President’s Excellence Award in Education and Mentorship. She received the MD Anderson Excellence in LEADership Award in 2019, the 2020 MD Anderson Cancer Center Jack and Beverly Randall Excellence in Cancer Care and the President’s Recognition of Faculty Excellence Award, Clinical Quality Improvement in 2022.

International Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award

Dr. Vaz-Luis is a Portuguese medical oncologist and clinical researcher focused on cancer survivorship. Her background includes training and an instructor position at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Harvard Medical School.  In 2016, she moved to Gustave Roussy (Villejuif, France) to direct an innovative survivorship-focused clinical and research group, which now includes dozens of researchers and clinician-scientists and has transformed into an institutional flagship program focused on survivorship (INTERVAL). Dr. Vaz-Luis leads several national efforts focused on quality of life and cancer, she co-chairs the scientific development of the CANTO cohort (CANcer TOxicities, NCT01993498), and she is leading the development of a national digital platform to accelerate decentralized cancer research (WeShare). Over the past decade, her research focused on the quantification of treatment-related burden, the stratification of the risk of cancer-related toxicities, and the development and implementation of interventions to mitigate quality of life deterioration, including digitally enabled pathways of care. Since 2023, Dr. Vaz-Luis was appointed Research Director of the Interdisciplinary Department for Patient Pathway Organization (DIOPP) at Gustave Roussy. She is an executive board member of the BIG and serves on the ESMO Scientific Committee and ASCO Scientific Program Committee. Dr. Vaz-Luis has mentored numerous individuals, including resident clinicians, clinical and research fellows, PhD students, and faculty members.

WWCC Mentorship Award Nominees

We celebrate the women who were nominated for the 2024 WWCC Mentorship Awards:

Laura Bukavina, MD
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

Gina D'Amato, MD 
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Ahlam Dohal, MBBS, FRCPC, EMSHA
King Fahad Specialist Hospital-Dammam/Ma'ak, Saudi Arabia

Elizabeth Fox, MD     
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Nazik Hammad, MD, MSc, MEHP, FACP
St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto

Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil
Emory University School of Medicine

Jennifer J. Knox, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/University of Toronto

Marina Konopleva, MD, PhD
Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center

Elaine Lam, MD
University of Colorado Medicine

Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH
Yale University

Humera Mahmood, MBBS, FCPS, FRCP
Atomic Energy Cancer Hospital, NORI (Nuclear Medicine, Oncology and Radiotherapy Institute), Islamabad

Khaoula Mazouzi, MD
EPH Souk Ahras, Algeria

Anisa Mburu, MMED, MBA, MBCHB
Institution Aga Khan Hospital, Mombasa, Kenya

Djamila Polatova, MD, PhD, DSc 
Center for Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Clinical Immunology, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Usha Rani Poli, MBBS, DNB(OBG), DGO   
Public Health Foundation of India, Hyderabad

Zenia Saridaki, MD, PhD 
Metropolitan Hospital, Athens; Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Eliza Shrestha, MBBS
Bakhtapur Cancer Hospital, Nepal

Catherine Smith, MD
University of California, San Francisco

Aumkhae Sookprasert, MD
Khon Kaen University, Thailand

Vered Stearns, MD 
Weill Cornell Medicine

Cristiane Takita, MD
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Cornelia Ulrich, PhD, MS      
Huntsman Cancer Institute

2024 Award Support

The 2024 ASCO and Conquer Cancer WWCC Mentorship Awards are supported by:

Bristol Myers Squibb; Eisai Inc.; Hologic, Inc

This list reflects donors as of March 20, 2024.