Heather Wakelee, MD, associate professor (oncology), has received the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group’s 2015 Young Investigator Award.

The ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group awards two prizes annually to researchers who have demonstrated significant scientific achievement and have made outstanding leadership contributions.

“Dr. Wakelee has already made huge contributions to our thoracic cancer program in ECOG-ACRIN and she is one of the truly rising stars in lung cancer research,” said Robert Comis, MD, group co-chair of ECOG-ACRIN, in an official press release.

Wakelee is the study chair for E1505, a phase III trial testing chemotherapy with or without bevacizimab in patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer. She’s also the study co-chair for ECOG-ACRIN’s E1512, a randomized phase II trial that studies the combination of erlotinib and cabozantinib in non-small cell lung cancer.

“Dr. Wakelee has developed into an internationally recognized thoracic medical oncologist, who demonstrates tireless effort in support of ECOG-ACRIN and is truly deserving of the ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Award,” added George Sledge, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Oncology. “She is a true ECOG-ACRIN loyalist, and indeed, a champion of cancer clinical trials at every level. She will continue to be a driving force in the field of medical oncology for many years to come.”