The ASCO Cancer Foundation will present $18,000 in Merit Awards to bright oncology fellows from around the world for their outstanding contributions to breast cancer research. This year's recipients will be awarded at the 2010 Breast Cancer Symposium, which will take place October 1-3 in Suburban Washington, DC.

"These intelligent young scientists demonstrate a passion for improving the lives of people living with breast cancer," said Julio Ibarra, MD, Chair of the 2010 Breast Cancer Symposium Steering Committee. "We are proud to recognize this year's Merit Award recipients and hope these awards will help strengthen their commitment to advancing clinical cancer diagnosis, treatment and research."

The ASCO Cancer Foundation Merit Awards are designed to promote clinical cancer research by young investigators and provide them with the opportunity to present their research and interact with other oncology researchers at the 2010 Breast Cancer Symposium. Awardees were selected based on the scientific merit of their abstracts and they will receive funding to help with travel expenses to attend the Symposium.

It is estimated that more than 260,000 patients in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010, which includes women and men with invasive and in situ breast cancer*. This two-and-a-half-day meeting will feature presentations and discussions on multidisciplinary breast cancer research and highlight more than 300 abstracts on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

The 2010 Breast Cancer Symposium is co-sponsored by six leading medical specialty societies, including the American Society of Breast Disease, The American Society of Breast Surgeons, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the National Consortium of Breast Centers and the Society of Surgical Oncology. Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and advocates, is the primary supporter of the meeting.

The Merit Awards are supported by the American Cancer Society, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene Corporation, Genzyme, Lilly USA, LLC, Novartis Oncology, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Pfizer Oncology and sanofi-aventis U.S.

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