Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, and Helena Yu, MD, have been awarded the 2021 EGFR Resisters/LUNGevity Lung Cancer Research Award. Each award totals $200,000 for a two-year term, with funding raised by the more than 2,500 members of the EGFR Resisters, a biomarker-specific patient group that spans 75 countries.
Dr. Lovly, an associate professor of medicine and the Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, won for her research, “Targeting drug tolerant states + DNA damage to block osimertinib resistance.” Dr. Yu, an assistant attending medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, won for her project entitled “Molecular characterization of lineage plasticity,” which aims to identify genetic changes that contribute to histologic transformation from adenocarcinoma to small cell or squamous cell lung cancer.
“Through the funded proposals, we will investigate two major areas of unmet need in the treatment of EGFR-mutated lung cancer, and we are confident that this partnership between patients, clinical/translational researchers, and advocacy organizations will enable cutting-edge research in a collaborative, team-based manner,” Dr. Lovly said in the press release.
