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2016 Featured Talks » Duane Roth Award



Duane Roth Award Ceremony from MCC Industry Relations on Vimeo.


Presented by Council President Sherri Lightner, City of San Diego
Awarded to Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD,UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center




Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Director, Clinical/Translational Research
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA


Dr. Slamon is chief of the Division of Hematology Oncology, Executive vice-Chair for research and a Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also Director of Clinical/Translational Research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and is active on their leadership advisory council and administration review committee.

Dr. Slamon received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. He earned his medical degree at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in cell biology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Slamon performed his medical internship and residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics and served a medical fellowship at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Dr. Slamon’s research has focused on the biologic effects of HER2/neu gene overexpression to receptors in human breast cancer. He is a recipient of many awards including the Canada Gairdner International Award, which is given annually to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science; the Brown-Hazen Award for Excellence in the Basic Sciences - Wadsworth Center, New York in 2001 and the Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in 2002.

Most recently, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration granted accelerated approval to palbociclib (IBRANCE, Pfizer, Inc.) for use in combination with letrozole for the treatment of postmenopausal women with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative advanced breast cancer as initial endocrine-based therapy for their metastatic disease. The Pfizer study was conducted in collaboration with the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program, led by Dr. Slamon.