The winners of the 2008 Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium Merit Awards were announced recently. Twenty-five physicians-in-training from around the world will receive a Merit Award for their notable research contributions in genitourinary cancers. These young investigators will receive funding to assist with their travel expenses to attend the Symposium scheduled for February 14-16 in San Francisco.

"ASCO is proud to recognize this year's Merit Awards winners," said Robert Dreicer, MD, Chair of the Symposium Steering Committee and Department Chair of Solid Tumor Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. "We honor their commitment to the field of clinical oncology and hope these awards provide the ability to further their research. These young leaders represent the encouraging future of clinical oncology and the tremendous research advances yet to come."

The ASCO Cancer Foundation Merit Awards are designed to further promote clinical research by young scientists. Recipients will have the opportunity to present their research for peer review and interact with other clinical investigators at the 2008 GU Symposium. Awardees were selected based on the scientific merit of their abstracts.

The three-day, multidisciplinary symposium features the newest strategies in prevention, screening and diagnosis of genitourinary cancers. Expanding on The Prostate Cancer Symposium, this year's symposium also offers educational sessions focused on cancers of the testis, bladder and kidney. The 2008 GU Symposium will provide a forum for the presentation and peer review of current and emerging scientific and therapeutic advances in all genitourinary cancers.

Three leading medical specialty societies co-sponsor the meeting, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), and the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO).

The Prostate Cancer Symposium Merit Award Recipients for 2008
(Research titles available upon request)

Sujeet S. Acharya, MD
University of Chicago

Daniel A. Barocas, MD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Sebastiano Buti, MD
Azienda Instituti Ospitaleri

Sarah Conlon, MD
University of California Davis

Jason A. Efstathiou, MD, PhD
Harvard Radiation Oncology Program

Aymen Elfiky, MD, MA
Yale Cancer Center

Fang Fang, MD
Karolinska Institutet

Adam S. Feldman, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital

Saby George, MD
Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute

Jeremy P. Grummet, MD, FRCS
Vancouver General Hospital

Alison M. Hadley, FRACP, MBBS
St. George Hospital

Jose A. Karam, MD
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Vitaly Margulis, MD
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Matthew J. Mellon, MD
Indiana University

Michael Ng, MBBS, FRANZCR
Royal Marsden Hospital

Kevin S. Oh, MD
University of Michigan Medical School

David Olmos, MD, PhD
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Venkata K. Parsa, MD, MBBS
Karmanos Cancer Institute/Wayne State University

Elizabeth R. Plimack, MD
The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center

Ganesh V. Raj, MD, PhD
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Brian Shuch, MD
University of California Los Angelos

Melinda L. Telli, MD
Stanford University School of Medicine

Nicholas J. Van As, MBBCh, FRCR
Royal Marsden Hospital

Roy Vergis, MD
The Institute of Cancer Research

Daniel R. Zwahlen, MD
The Alfred

The 2008 Merit Awards are funded through The ASCO Foundation and are supported through restricted educational grants from Aptium Oncology, Novartis Oncology and sanofi-aventis U.S.

About ASCO

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world's leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 25,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. For ASCO information and resources, visit http://www.asco.org/presscenter. Patient-oriented cancer information is available at http://www.plwc.org.

About The ASCO Cancer Foundation

The ASCO Cancer Foundation supports educational programs of the highest quality in cancer care and prevention; facilitates the dissemination of information about cancer and cancer treatment to patients and their families; and, through its grants program, supports, encourages, and recognizes excellence in clinical research in the field of oncology.

The ASCO Cancer Foundation