American Cancer Society has honored five Americans for their outstanding individual contributions to fighting cancer. The Society's National volunteer leaders presented these annual awards during the organization's annual meeting in Atlanta:
Olufunmilayo Olopade, MB, received the Distinguished Service Award for seminal contributions to understanding root causes of aggressive breast cancer in women of African ancestry. She is American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Peter S. Sheldon, Esq, and Karen A. Moffitt, PhD, were both awarded the National Volunteer Leadership Award in recognition of long and exemplary volunteer service to the Society. Mr. Sheldon has been a Society volunteer at all levels of the organization for more than 20 years. Dr. Moffitt has advocated for millions of dollars in state and federal support for cancer research in Florida, pursuing tobacco control initiatives in the state, and helping create the R.O.C.K. College Scholarship Program for young cancer survivors.
Sister Mary Scullion received the Humanitarian Award for her efforts to begin Project HOME (Housing, Opportunities, Medical Care and Education), which has become an internationally recognized organization addressing the prevention of homelessness and alleviation of poverty.
Anthony Back, MD, received the Pathfinder in Palliative Care Award for his work in developing palliative care in the United States. He is Director of Palliative Care and the Program on Cancer Communication at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation, in partnership with The Hastings Center, honored five physicians for improving the care of patients near the end of life.
Ann Allegre, MD, received the senior physician award of $25,000 for her pioneering work developing hospice and palliative medicine services, starting before there were formal training programs. She is Director of Medical Programs at Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care.
Anthony Nicholas Galanos, MD, received the midcareer physician award of $25,000, for his work in establishing and promoting a palliative care service at Duke University. He is a geriatrician and Medical Director of the Duke University Hospital Palliative Care Service.
Early-career awards of $15,000 each were given to Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, MD, Medical Director of the Department of Pain Medicine, Palliative Care, and Integrative Medicine at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota; Savithri Nageswaran, MBBS, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; and Eric W. Widera, MD, Director of the Hospice and Palliative Care Service of San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco.
The nomination and selection process was administered by the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore, the University Hospital and Academic Medical Center for Einstein, have received a five-year, $16 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for research in nanoparticles. The research will be carried out by five institutions, including Einstein, that comprise the Texas Center for Cancer Nanomedicine. Steven Libutti, MD, Einstein-Montefiore principal investigator, said this part of the consortium will develop nanoparticles specifically targeting pancreatic cancer.
Michael D. Lairmore, DVM, PhD, has been promoted to the newly created position of Associate Director of Shared Resources, where he will oversee a network of 16 centralized cancer research core facilities for investigators across the university. He is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Beth Rudloff, RN, has been named Chief Operating She Officer of MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando. She has been with Orlando Health, the parent company of MD Anderson Orlando since 1989, and most recently served as Chief Nursing Officer for Orlando Regional Medical Center. Rudloff replaces Anne Peach, MSN, who has taken on full-time duties as Orlando Health Chief Nursing Officer.
The American Society for Cell Biology awarded its highest scientific honor, the E.B. Wilson Medal, to three researchers during the society's annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Stuart A. Kornfeld, MD, Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.
James E. Rothman, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Chemistry, and
Professor and Chairman of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine. He is also Executive Director of Yale Center for High Throughput Cell Biology.
Randy W. Schekman, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.
The award is named after Edmund Beecher Wilson, credited as America's first cell biologist, and recognizes far-reaching contributions to cell biology over a lifetime in science.
Nevada Cancer Institute has added the following new staff members: Cheryl A. Brewer, MD, will establish a new gynecologic oncology specialty; Richard R. Jacobs, MD, will lead the Radiation Oncology Service, and Vijaya K. Gadiyaram has joined the medical oncology team.
Dr. Brewer was previously at the Women's Cancer Center of Nevada in Las Vegas, the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Jacobs was most recently Director of Radiation Oncology for the Mt. Carmel Regional Cancer Center in Pittsburg, Kansas. And Dr. Gadiyaram, who will coordinate and oversee medical care in the Medical Oncology Department, recently completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at West Virginia University.
The Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Charity Foundation has awarded the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center a grant of $150 million for cancer research, to support genetic-analysis based research, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The grant is the largest in the cancer center's history, noted John Mendelsohn, MD, the institute's President.
The grant will fund the Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan Building for Personalized Cancer Care at MD Anderson, which will house the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy and the Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. It will also fund three distinguished university chairs named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan for oncology, the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for medical or scientific discipline dedicated to cancer research and the Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for scientific and medical knowledge in cancer research.
A $2.5 million gift from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation will establish the Barron Hilton Chair in Pediatrics at City of Hope. The gift will support recruitment of a department chair to lead research and treatment programs aimed at improving therapies and outcomes for children with cancer.
Award to Steven Vogl for His Great Questions at SABCS Over the Years!!
As all regular attendees of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium know, Steven Vogl, MD, a medical oncologist in private practice in the Bronx, NY, is an active contributor to the post-presentation periods, asking questions from the audience that are thoughtful and often quite pointed. This year, the conference organizers acknowledged Dr. Vogl for his "insightful questions" over the years with a special award. As soon as Dr. Vogl-who always identifies himself from the audience as "Vogl, New York"-had asked his first question during the opening session, Program Co-director C. Kent Osborne, MD, stopped the proceedings with a surprise announcement, calling Dr. Vogl to the podium to present a plaque that quoted Voltaire, "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers," and that said, "This honor is presented to Steven Vogl, MD, with affection and respect from the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.