Helsinn, the Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care products, in conjunction with the Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), announces Sarah A. Buckley, MD, of the University of Washington as the first recipient of the Anna Braglia Endowed Young Investigator Award in Cancer Supportive Care.
The Conquer Cancer Foundation's Young Investigator Award (YIA) funds physicians who are in the final years of training to aid their transition from a fellowship programme to a faculty appointment.
The YIA is a one year $50,000 grant that aims to promote quality research in clinical oncology.
The inaugural recipient of this endowed YIA, Dr Sarah A. Buckley completed an undergraduate degree in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received her medical degree from New York University.
Dr Buckley then moved to the University of Washington (UW) and is a senior fellow in hematology/oncology at UW. Dr Buckley's clinical interests include developing tools to improve medical decision-making for patients with aggressive myeloid malignancies and she is currently in the process of developing an acute myeloid leukemia-specific quality of life instrument.
Dr Buckley's YIA project, which will begin this summer, is entitled Validation of a disease-specific quality of life instrument in patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML).
Helsinn endowed this award, which is part of CCF's Grants and Award's Programme, to encourage more aspiring physicians to move into all areas of oncology by supporting them as they move from academia into research.
Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, commented: "Dr Sarah Buckley is an outstanding candidate for this award as her work holds the potential to radically improve our understanding of the support needed by patients with AML. In everything we do, Helsinn is committed to helping people with cancer improve their quality of life. Dr Buckley's work is highly complementary to this goal. We are delighted to be able to support her valuable work and wish her the best with her project.”
Dr Sarah A. Buckley, said: "I am honoured to have been selected as the first recipient of the Anna Braglia Endowed Young Investigator Award. Patients with AML face a unique set of challenges, many of which are not captured adequately by the quality of life questionnaires that are available. The clinical focus of my group is in developing a Quality of Life questionnaire that is specific to issues faced by patients with AML, and we propose a study to see how this questionnaire works in practice. The Anna Braglia Endowed YIA, supported by Helsinn through the Conquer Cancer Foundation, will provide critical support as we progress towards the validation of a disease-specific Quality of Life instrument.”
