UF Health oncologist receives clinical investigator leadership award

A University of Florida Health cancer researcher has received a competitive three-year award from a leading national foundation to support her leadership development as a clinical investigator.

Sherise Rogers, M.D., an assistant professor in the division of hematology and oncology in the UF College of Medicine, received the inaugural Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials: Clinical Investigator Leadership Award from Conquer Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation, funded by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation.

The award aims to provide clinical cancer researchers with advanced clinical trials knowledge, leadership skills, mentorship and sponsorship to position them for success as independent clinical researchers, team members and leaders.

“I am very honored to receive this support for my career as a clinical investigator and leader, especially in implementing access to cancer research and clinical trials for marginalized groups, which is one major way we can improve cancer health disparities,” said Rogers, a member of the UF Health Cancer Center. “By ensuring that marginalized groups who are most affected by the cancers being studied have access to participate in clinical trials, we can better determine whether novel treatments actually work for them and advance outcomes.”

Rogers was eligible to apply for the award after completing a two-year career development program, called the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Award, this fall. The program included training from nationally recognized faculty on how to design, implement and diversify clinical trials.

The program also provided Rogers with dedicated research time to complete an exploratory analysis of the intestinal microbiome of patients with pancreatic cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. Rogers presented the research this fall at an American Association for Cancer Research conference, where she outlined how collecting data from multiple sites helped improve the diversity of patients who participated. Rogers is now analyzing the data for publication and grant applications.

Pancreatic cancer has significant disparities; African Americans have at least a 20% higher incidence of the disease, lower rates of surgery offered, lower quality surgeries and worse overall mortality from pancreatic cancer than other racial groups.

“With my Winn career development award, I learned how to get in touch with our communities from the beginning and build relationships so people are encouraged to participate, ensuring the research and the outcomes reflect the populations we serve,” Rogers said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the new award will help me expand on what I can do for the communities served by the UF Health Cancer Center.”

The leadership program will include collaboration with national clinical trials groups. Each participant will be assigned to a group in the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network, placed on one of its core committees and matched with an experienced clinical trial leader.