Spring 2026
By Kathy Clute
Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, has fueled groundbreaking research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for decades. Its most recent grantmaking directs $1.3 million in awards to seven early and midcareer physician-scientists tackling a wide range of challenges, including how to identify patients likely to develop high-risk prostate cancer and understanding how food insecurity affects survivors of childhood cancers.
Among the grants are prestigious multiyear Advanced Clinical Research Awards given to two assistant professors leading clinical trials of new treatments for two aggressive, hard-to-treat cancers. Filipa Lynce, MD, FASCO, is directing a phase 2 clinical study to determine whether a combination of two FDA-approved drugs will prove more effective than current presurgical treatments against stage III HER2-expressing inflammatory breast cancer (IBC).
“IBC is a rare but aggressive form of breast cancer that spreads quickly and is responsible for up to 10% of breast cancer related deaths,” said Lynce. “Unfortunately, there are no specific treatments for it, and standard therapies are associated with worse outcomes compared to other types of breast cancer.”
Early research suggests that the drugs she is testing—an antibody-drug conjugate combined with an immunotherapy agent—may work well together, and her clinical trial will evaluate whether the combination therapy is safe and effective.
Elizabeth Stover, MD, PhD, is investigating advanced-stage ovarian cancer, which is typically treated with surgery and platinum-based chemotherapy but usually becomes resistant and recurs. Her new clinical trial targets recurrent disease that is resistant to platinum.
“We are studying whether we can add a new drug to a standard chemotherapy drug, paclitaxel, to enhance the killing of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer cells,” Stover said. Laboratory studies indicate that combining a drug that degrades a specific protein called BCL-XL with paclitaxel could prove more effective than the chemotherapy alone; this is the first time the combination is being evaluated in patients.
Fellows Jordan Chinai, MD, PhD, and Dan Gui, MD, PhD, both focused on pancreatic cancer; and Nathalie Javidi-Sharifi, MD, PhD (Richter’s Transformation in chronic lymphocytic leukemia), received Young Investigator Awards, as did Instructor Jeremiah Wala, MD, PhD (prostate cancer). Rahela Aziz-Bose, MD, was given a Career Development Award (food insecurity in survivors of childhood cancer).
Conquer Cancer is committed to investing in the future of cancer research and discovery. By providing critical support to researchers at every career stage—including those working at institutions like Dana-Farber—the foundation empowers them to tackle the most complex challenges facing people with cancer. This essential funding allows physician scientists to turn innovative ideas into real-world breakthroughs that deliver vital improvements and save lives.