ASCO is pleased to announce that the annual Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award will be presented to Jay R. Harris, MD. Dr. Harris will accept the award and present his award lecture, “Local Treatment of Breast Cancer: Looking Backward to Gaze Forward,” at the upcoming 2008 Breast Cancer Symposium, to be held September 5-7 in Washington, DC.

“I am thrilled to be a recipient of the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award,” said Dr. Harris. “Dr. Bonadonna has devoted his life and career to advancing medicine and improving the care and treatment of people living with cancer. He is an amazing scientist with a human connection and I look forward to honoring his legacy with my future research endeavors.”

Dr. Harris’ main research interest is the use of radiation therapy in the multidisciplinary management of breast cancer, with a focus on establishing the most effective and safe radiation treatment for patients. During the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award and Lecture, he will share his recent research on the evolution and changes in local treatment of breast cancer and its implications in the clinical setting.

Currently, Dr. Harris is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as residency program director for the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program. He served on the ASCO Board of Directors from 1997-2000.

“ASCO has a longstanding tradition of honoring distinguished physician-scientists and cancer researchers through recognition such as the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award,” said Allen S. Lichter, MD, chief executive officer of ASCO. “Support and recognition of excellence in clinical research is one of the Society’s core values and Dr. Harris’ work has led to some of the most important advances in the treatment of breast cancer with radiation therapy. We know that his forthcoming efforts will lead to more.”

Supported by a grant from GlaxoSmithKline Oncology, the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award and Fellowship, named for the renowned international researcher, is a $10,000 annual award that recognizes an active clinical or translational researcher with a distinguished record of accomplishments in advancing the field of breast cancer. The Bonadonna Award is comprised of an endowment, allowing the award to be available for many years to come, and it is accompanied by a one-year, $50,000 fellowship grant that will be awarded by The ASCO Cancer Foundation to an early-career breast cancer researcher who will work in the lab at the recipient’s institution. The 2008 fellow will be announced at a later date.

Dr. Harris is the second recipient of the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award, preceded by Daniel F. Hayes, MD, clinical director of the Breast Oncology Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Hayes named Dr. Vera Maranci of the University of Michigan as the 2007 Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Fellow.


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