ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Conquer Cancer^®, the ASCO Foundation, today announced the recipients of multiple cancer research grants, including several designed specifically to support early-career investigators. Partnering with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and F Cancer, Conquer Cancer will award four Young Investigator Awards (YIA) and three Career Development Awards (CDA) to fund a diverse range of breast cancer, lung cancer and hematological cancer research.

The YIA provides research funding to promising early-career investigators during their final years of training to support their transition to faculty appointments and to encourage quality research in clinical oncology. The CDA is a three-year grant that funds clinical investigators in their first to fourth years of faculty appointment as they establish independent clinical cancer research programs.

Career Development Awards

Yara Abdou, MD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer – Breast Cancer Research Foundation® Career Development Award for Diversity and Inclusion in Breast Cancer for the research project “Molecular Residual Disease in Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Detection and Therapeutic Interception.” 

David W. Lim, MDCM, MEd, PhD, FRCSC received the 2024 Conquer Cancer – Breast Cancer Research Foundation® Career Development Award for the research project “Understanding the impact of social marginalization, variability in care received, and treatment center and provider characteristics on lobular versus ductal breast cancer outcomes using population-based health services data.”

Adi Zoref-Lorenz, MD, PhD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer – Israel Cancer Research Fund Career Development Award for the research project “Hyperinflammation in Hematologic Malignancies: Characterizing and Altering the Natural History of a Lethal Syndrome.” 

Young Investigator Awards

Hazim Ababneh, MD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer - Endowed Young Investigator Award in memory of Evelyn H. Lauder for the research project “Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema in the Middle East: Women’s Awareness, Screening Utilization Patterns, and Identifying Barriers and Challenges.”

Allison Chang, MD, PhD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer- F Cancer Young Investigator Award in memory of Barbara Berlanti for the research project “A deep learning image analysis tool for identifying individuals at risk for lung cancer.” 

Dana Narvaez, MD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer – Breast Cancer Research Foundation® Young Investigator Award for Diversity and Inclusion in Breast Cancer in honor of Susan Hirschhorn and in memory of her mother for the research project “Development of a prognostic score integrating pathological biomarkers to evaluate treatment response to immune checkpoint inhibitors in the neoadjuvant setting of triple negative breast cancer.” 

Nataly Torrejon, MD received the 2024 Conquer Cancer – Breast Cancer Research Foundation® Young Investigator Award for Diversity and Inclusion in Breast Cancer for the research project “TRAIL-R2 and HER2 Bi-Specific Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells for the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer.”

Supporters

Breast Cancer Research Foundation®; F Cancer
(This listing is current as of October 2nd, 2024.)