Newly Announced: More Hope Career Awards to sustain Innovative Research
Dr. Sonam Puri from the Moffitt Cancer Center has been awarded a prestigious Coltman Fellowship to support her leadership of S2503: A Randomized Phase II Study of Atezolizumab and JBI-802 Versus Investigator’s Choice of Standard of Care for Previously Treated Extensive Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).
Through the S2503 study, Dr. Puri aims to address critical challenges in SCLC treatment, focusing on strategies to overcome resistance to immunotherapy. Her research will also explore a range of biomarkers, including an innovative blood test, to better understand how different subsets of SCLC respond to immunotherapy and the factors driving these differences.
The Coltman Fellowship will enable Dr. Puri to gain invaluable experience in launching a trial within a large research network like SWOG. This collaboration not only provides access to diverse patient populations but also extends the reach of cutting-edge clinical research to include patients treated in more remote and underserved settings across the country.
Dr. Parminder Singh, an investigator at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, will leverage a Career Engagement Award (CEA) to advance work associated with SWOG study S1806: Phase III Randomized Trial of Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy with or Without Atezolizumab in Localized Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer.
Singh’s Career Award follows previous training and mentoring support through our Early Stage Investigator Training Course (ESITC). After joining SWOG’s genitourinary committee in 2013, Dr. Singh was accepted into the 2015 cohort of the ESITC. The experience enabled his launch of the S1605 bladder cancer study in collaboration with Dr. Peter Black. Singh soon followed this effort with the design and activation of S1806, the largest phase III registration trial evaluating atezolizumab in combination with trimodality therapy (surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
Singh’s Career Engagement Award secures protected time to review data and work toward the publication of study results from S1806, which closed to accrual in April.
As SWOG’s charitable arm, we’re committed to nurturing investigators like Puri and Singh throughout their clinical research careers by providing mentorship, professional development, and research support. Established in 1999, the ESITC is the hallmark program for our early career members – and programs like the Coltman Fellowship and Career Engagement Award help sustain members’ clinical research efforts throughout multiple professional phases. These critical opportunities are made possible with philanthropic funding from our donors.
To learn more about all programs offered to support SWOG and our member researchers, visit our funding page. To support our vital work, please consider a gift today.
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