Progress against sarcomas can only be sustained by the most dedicated and intelligent people making an effort to work collaboratively to study these uncommon diseases.  It is most important that we make an investment to train new physicians and scientists to find better ways to cure and ultimately prevent sarcomas.  SARC recognizes the need to encourage and support young physicians as they begin their careers and to attract the best and brightest to choose careers in sarcoma research.  Indeed, this new career development award program represents a significant increase in support to encourage young investigators to join this effort.

 The SARC Career Development Committee had its initial meeting in Miami on March 3 and 4, 2008. SARC was provide grants of $300,000 over a 3 year period to 8 young carefully selected clinician scholars  The group discussed and agreed upon specific aspects of the award including:  candidate eligibility requirements, application process and review mechanisms.  The CDA will be open to applicants from the U.S., Canada and Europe. Our CDA will be modeled after NIH career development awards yet will have several unique features including annual meetings with the awardees to monitor their progress as well as to provide mentorship.    Details on how to apply for the CDA will be available shortly.

 It is with great pride that SARC announces its Career Development Award Program (CDA) that will begin providing grant funds on July 1, 2009 to individuals who have shown a capacity for independent research in the field of sarcomas. The award will help to support future sarcoma experts in their endeavors to pursue clinical research careers.  Our ultimate goal is to invest in these young investigators so they, in turn, can work together to continue SARC’s mission.

 The Roche Foundation has provided a $2.5 million dollar unrestricted educational grant to Dr. Baker on behalf of SARC.  SARC has selected the following outstanding individuals to serve on the  Career Development Committee: Jonathan Fletcher, MD, Richard Gorlick, MD, PhD, Matt van de Rijn, MD, PhD, Steve Ritland, PhD, Mark Thornton, MD, PhD, Catherine Wheeler, MD and Jay Wunder, MD, MSC, FRCSC (see Table 1).  Each of these prominent individuals recognized the extreme importance of funding of this sort in establishing their careers.  The Committee has representatives from the following disciplines: pathology, pediatric, medical and orthopaedic oncology.  Dr. Mark Thornton is the President of the Sarcoma Foundation of America(SFA) and will be lending his expertise both as a pharmacologist and former member of the Food and Drug Administration as well as a patient advocate.   The SFA has joined with the ASCO Foundation to develop an advanced Clinical Research Award in Sarcoma (www.ascofoundation.org/grants). Dr. Lee Helman and Dr. Laurence Baker will co-chair this CDA committee. Jennifer Keene, M.S. who is working with Dr. Baker established a young investigator focus group (see Table 2) consisting of young clinical scientists to give us guidance as to the issues they think are important in establishing this new program.

Table 1 - SARC CDA Committee

Jonathan Fletcher, MD, PhD                   Associate Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

Richard Gorlick, MD, PhD                        Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Pharmacology, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Vice Chairman of Pediatrics, Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at   The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore,  Bronx, NY

Matt van de Rijn, MD, PhD                        Professor of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA

Steve Ritland, PhD                                    Director, Early Stage Planning, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Nutley, NJ

Mark Thornton, MD, PhD                         President, Sarcoma Foundation of America, Damascus, MD

Catherine Wheeler, MD                           Executive Director Pharma Developmental Clinical Oncology, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Nutley, NJ

Jay Wunder, MD, MSC, FRCSC                Head, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery Mount Sinai Hospital, Rubinoff Gross Chair in Orthopaedic Oncology, Toronto, Ontario

Laurence  Baker, DO (Co-Chair)             Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Michigan, President of SARC,        Ann Arbor, MI

Lee Helman, MD (Co-Chair)                     Scientific Director for Clinical Research, Center for Cancer Research at the NCI, Bethesda, MD

Jean-Yves Blay, MD, PhD (Co-Chair)      Chairman of EORTC STBSG, Conticanet Network of Excellence of the 6th FP of the European Commission, Lyon, France

Table 2 - Young Investigator Focus Group

Investigator                                                    Institution

Michael Becker, MD                                       University of Rochester

Dennis Hughes, MD, PhD                               MD Anderson Cancer Center

Joanne Jeter, MD                                           Arizona Cancer Center

Christopher Lao, MD, MPH                             University of Michigan

Joseph Ludwig, MD                                       MD Anderson Cancer Center

Andrew Wagner, MD, PhD                             Dana Farber Cancer Institute