Hope Board of Directors Votes Unanimously to Support Additional Coltman Fellow


Supporting the career development of biomedical researchers is crucial to the future of healthcare. Scientific investigators are responsible for the discoveries that have shaped medicine throughout the past century, and they are the reason many cancers are treatable today.

Federal funding for biomedical research has been in decline for years. COVID-19 is only increasing the challenges young medical researchers face through lab closures and delayed progress. More than ever before, up-and-coming investigators need support, and The Hope Foundation remains committed to providing it. In fact, our board just approved funding for an additional 2020 Coltman Fellowship Award. Thus, we’re pleased to report that two outstanding early career SWOG investigators were selected during the annual spring group meeting Coltman Fellowship review.

Chad Rusthoven, MD, of the University of Colorado will utilize the research support to lead SWOG S1827 (MAVERICK), a randomized phase III trial evaluating the role of preventative brain radiation for patients with small-cell lung cancer in the modern era of brain MRI surveillance.

S1827: MRI Brain Surveillance Alone Versus MRI Surveillance and Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation (PCI): A Randomized Phase III Trial in Small-Cell Lung Cancer (MAVERICK)

Zeynep Eroglu, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center will devote the fellowship to another new SWOG study, S2000, which, once launched, will compare the effectiveness of two different combinations of treatments for metastatic melanoma that has spread to the brain.

Programs which provide funding for protected research time are critical to the ongoing professional development of clinician-researchers like Rusthoven and Eroglu. Since its founding, the  Dr. Charles A. Coltman, Jr. Fellowship program  has helped train a growing cadre of today’s cancer research leaders.

Support the Coltman Fellowship Program