Montefiore in the News

Montefiore-Einstein Earns Top Score in Competitive Application for Therapeutic Cancer Research Grant and Names 4 New Scholars 

NEW YORK (September 11, 2015) – Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care (MECCC) and the NCI-designated Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC) today announced receipt of a $3.93 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the prestigious Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (PCACO). This competitive NIH Institutional Research Career Development grant provides MECCC and AECC an average of $786,000 annually over five years, the largest amount given to any participating institution in the country. 

PCACO is an innovative resource for clinicians and scientists to build invaluable skills geared towards true bench-to-bedside cancer therapeutic research. This is accomplished through a coordinated program of mentoring from senior AECC faculty, an established innovative series of formal courses provided by the Block Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Einstein and Montefiore and research projects with an interdisciplinary collaborative design. Recipients include M.D.s and Ph.D.s who are committed to developing careers in patient-oriented clinical and translational research. 

“The Calabresi Award is a nationally renowned program, with only fifteen of its kind throughout the country,” said Roman Perez-Soler, M.D., chairman and chief, Department of Medical Oncology, MECCC; chief and professor, Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine (Oncology) at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, deputy director of AECCC and Principal Investigator for the Calabresi Program. “We have received funding from the program since 2010 and during that time the grant has supported the work of 13 of our brightest clinician scientists who have devoted themselves to groundbreaking cancer therapy research and most of them currently pursuing successful academic careers. We are very excited for the next generation of Calabresi scholars to continue this legacy at Montefiore and Einstein.” 

The four new Calabresi scholars selected for this application period are Thomas Ow, M.D., Akiva Novetsky, M.D., M.S., Benjamin Gartrell, M.D., and Haejin In, M.D. Drs. Ow and Novetsky will both receive mentorship and conduct research, the former concentrating on radiation therapy for head and neck cancer and the latter on gynecologic oncology surgeries. Dr. Ow is enrolled in the Clinical Research Training Program at Einstein, which leads to a Master of Science degree in clinical research methods. Dr. Novetsky, a graduate of that program, is enrolled in PCOR-PRIME, which focuses on patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Gartrell will be investigating therapy for patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostrate under the mentorship and direction of Sanjay Goel, M.B.B.S., attending physician at MECCC and associate professor of medicine at Einstein. Dr. In will be exploring suboptimal patterns of health care utilization prior to cancer diagnosis to improve patient outcomes and reduce preventable expenditures.