During the ESMO Congress, the winners of Merck Serono’s inaugural Grant for Oncology Innovation (GOI) were announced and awarded. The award, which comes with grants totaling €1 million, is intended to support projects that have the potential to advance developments in personalized treatment options for solid tumors.
The international scientific jury of oncologists and researchers selected the following winners:
Ulrich Güller, MD, and Markus Jörger, MD, Kantonsspital St. Gallen (Switzerland), for the proposed project entitled “Randomized prospective placebo-controlled double-blind phase III study on adjuvant aspirin treatment of colorectal cancer patients with PIK3CA mutation.”
Dr. Clara Montagut, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona (Spain), for the project proposal “Highly sensitive selection and molecular companion diagnostics of CRC patients under anti-EGFR therapy using NGS platforms and series of liquid biopsies.”
Dr. Stefan Sleijfer, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Rotterdam (The Netherlands), for his research project “Non-invasive monitoring of breast cancer therapy using cell-free tumor DNA in blood.”
“With the inaugural Grant for Oncology Innovation, we hope to foster further pioneering work in the research field of personalized cancer therapy, enabling better long-term treatment outcomes for patients,” said Belén Garijo, President and CEO of Merck Serono.
For more information on GOI and details on the application process for the 2015 scholarship awards, visit www.grantforoncologyinnovation.org.
InFo ONCOLOGY & HEMATOLOGY 2014; 2(10): 2
