News

For Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, MD, PhD, it was the promise of immunotherapy—that is, harnessing the body’s own immune system to fight cancer—that inspired her to get into cancer research. Training under one of the pioneers of immunotherapy, she witnessed amazing survival stories of patients. The project Hu-Lieskovan proposed for the 5 For The Fight grant is to tackle the immune-related adverse events when adding different immunotherapies.

Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, PhD, MD, physician scientist at Huntsman Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Utah, has received the National Cancer Institute 2020 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award. The award recognizes outstanding clinical investigators at NCI-designated Cancer Centers who participate extensively in NCI-funded clinical trials, and whose leadership and activities promote a successful culture of collaborative clinical research.

Heloisa Soares, MD, PhD, a gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine tumor medical oncologist and researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, received two awards from external organizations honoring her contributions to the field of cancer. Soares was named an Advocacy Champion by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Soares also received the 2020 North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society Theranostics Investigator Grant.

Dear patients, please know this as you go through your breast cancer treatment journey. The dedicated technical staff, PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in the Welm Labs continue to work hard every day (and night!) to bring new hope to people with metastatic breast cancer through innovative research, always with patients in mind.

“I just love taking care of them, helping make them better,” says pediatric neurosurgeon Samuel Cheshier about the children he treats at Huntsman Cancer Institute and Primary Children’s Hospital. He talks about what he has learned from these kids and their parents, what patients should know about Huntsman Cancer Institute, and what he reads about in his spare time.

When Samuel Cheshier was 13 years old, his favorite cousin died of colon cancer. “I always think of him when I do cancer research,” Cheshier says. As a pediatric neurosurgeon, he witnesses firsthand the devastation that malignant brain tumors cause patients and their families. The desire to help them motivates his basic science research, with the goal of translating experiments into therapies. The 5 for the Fight Fellowship will help speed up the pace of his research, allowing him to start a new project.

5 For The Fight, a global movement inviting everyone to give $5 for the fight against cancer, today announced the inaugural recipients of the 5 For The Fight Cancer Research Fellowship in partnership with Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

Samuel Cheshier, MD, PhD, and the Neurologic Cancers Center team at Huntsman Cancer Institute are working to find better treatments for brain cancer, particularly pediatric brain cancer. Many primary brain tumors are incurable from the start, and currently, none are curable once they recur. The need for novel, effective therapies is critical. In 2020, the Engelstad Foundation funded a $100,000 grant at HCI to study a potential immunotherapy treatment for pediatric brain tumors.