John Quale Travel Fellowship Program

The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) is pleased to present The John Quale Travel Fellowship. This $1,500 travel fellowship is intended to defray travel-related costs related to attending the annual Bladder Cancer Think Tank Meeting. The annual travel fellowship is awarded to early career physicians and scientists. Please contact BCAN if you have any questions by emailing thinktank@bcan.org.

Application Process Now Open for John Quale Travel Fellowship Program

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting applications for the John Quale Travel Fellowship Program, a special opportunity for early career physicians and scientists interested in bladder cancer research to attend the Eighth Annual BCAN Bladder Cancer Think Tank, which will be held August 8-10, 2013 in Snowmass, Colorado. Completed applications must be submitted electronically using the proposalCENTRAL application form by April 16, 2013. The fellowship recipients will be announced in May.

At the 2012 Think Tank in Stowe, VT, these scientists were awarded John Quale Travel Fellowships and presented on their research:

• Arjun Balar, MD, an assistant professor at the New York University Cancer Center presented on targeted therapies and markers to predict response and prognosis for bladder cancer
• Jeffrey Bassett, MD, MPH, a fellow in urologic oncology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discussed introducing tobacco screening into urology clinics and using the visit as a teachable moment among bladder cancer survivors
• Eugene Lee, MD, a urologic oncology fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, talked about driving laboratory science based on patient needs in bladder cancer – especially adjunct therapies to BCG and chemotherapy. Click here for an article on Dr. Lee’s research.
• Armine Smith, MD, a urologic oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute, presented on the need for combination targeted therapy in treating bladder cancer

History of the Award

The following young investigators were awarded 2011 John Quale Travel Fellowships:

• Meng Chen, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of epidemiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented on a potential genetic marker of susceptibility to bladder cancer, which also correlates with telomere length
• Kenneth Nepple, MD, a fellow in urologic oncology at Washington University in St. Louis, discussed hospital readmission rates (whether patients have to return to the hospital within 90 days) for patients after a radical cystectomy, and what factors might affect readmission rates
• Sandip Prasad, MD, a Society of Urologic Oncology Fellow at the University of Chicago, talked about identifying “hot spots” for bladder cancer – geographic areas where bladder cancer is more common than we would expect – and how we can compare those hot spots to what carcinogens people in that area might have been exposed to
• Steven Smith, MD, PhD, a pathology resident at the University of Michigan, presented on the potential use of molecular biology to identify which patients are likely to respond to chemotherapy

Travel Fellows from 2009 – 2011
From left to right, Kilian Gust (2010), Amit Patel (2009), Peter O’Donnell (2009),
Heather Honore Goltz (2010), Steven Smith (2011), Sandip Prasad (2011),
Will Brandt (2010), Ken Nepple (2011), Meng Chen (2011)

2010 was the second year that BCAN presented four young researchers with John Quale Travel Fellowship Awards to cover the cost of attending BCAN’s annual Think Tank meeting. These promising scientists also gave presentations at the August, 2010 meeting on their recent research:

• Andrew Feifer, MD, a second year fellow in urologic oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, presented on a survey examining chemotherapy use in bladder cancer patients;
• Heather Honorѐ Goltz, PhD, LMSW, a NIDDK KURe Scholar in the VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence at the Michael E. DeBakay VA Medical Center, spoke about health literacy in bladder cancer patients;
• William Brandt, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow in Pathology at Johns Hopkins University, discussed efforts to target the Notch pathway in bladder cancer stem cells; and
• Kilian Gust, MD, a post-doctoral fellow at the Vancouver Prostate Centre, presented research on the differential expression of Notch receptors in bladder cancer.

BCAN hopes that continuing to fund programs like the Travel Fellowship Award and the BCAN Award for Bladder Cancer Research will encourage young investigators to pursue careers studying bladder cancer. Learn more about the young investigators who attended BCAN’s Think Tank.