Wednesday, May 08, 2024 During the Awards Ceremony at the CCTG Annual Spring meeting Dr. Lillian Siu was presented the Dr Joseph Pater Founder's Award for excellence in clinical trials research. The award is for recognizing a network clinical trials research investigator whose leadership and body of work has contributed to significant advances in the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer."I feel deeply privileged and humbled to be bestowed with the 2024 CCTG Founder’s Award – the Dr. Joseph Pater Excellence in Clinical Trials Research Award. Dr. Pater’s innovative foresight has set rigorous benchmarks and ensured top-notch quality for clinical trials across Canada. Through CCTG's stewardship, the clinical trial landscape has fostered opportunities for drug development, translational science and health services research on both national and global scales. It has also facilitated advancements in treatments that have significantly improved patient outcomes," says Dr. Siu.Dr. Siu is a senior medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 1998, and has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto since 2009. She is the Director of the Phase I Program and Co-Director of the Bras and Family Drug Development Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and holds the BMO Chair in Precision Genomics (2016-2026). She is also the Clinical Lead for the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Siu served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) for a four-year term (2012-2016) and was Chair of the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Grants Selection Committee in 2019; she served on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors for a three-year term (2017-2020). Dr. Siu is a fellow of both ASCO and AACR. Dr. Siu is the 2024-2025 President-Elect of the AACR. Dr. Siu’s major research focus is in the area of new anticancer drug development, particularly with respect to phase I trials and head and neck malignancies. She is the co-Contact PI of a phase I UM1 grant sponsored by the United States National Cancer Institute. In addition to her active research in early phase clinical trials, she has been leading genomics initiatives and immuno-oncology trials at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Together, the three programs of drug development, cancer genomics and tumor immunotherapy form a triad of synergy that supports the institution’s core vision to deliver precision cancer medicine. Internationally, Dr. Siu was the recipient of the US NCI Michaele C. Christian Award in Oncology Drug Development in 2010. She was awarded the TAT 2020 Honorary Award for contributions in the development of anticancer drugs. In 2020, Dr. Siu was recognized for her educational efforts by the ASCO International Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award. Dr. Siu is the 2024 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award recipient, one of the most prestigious awards from ASCO. Dr. Siu has published 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and she is currently the co-Editor-in-Chief for AACR’s newest journal Cancer Research Communications, and is on the editorial board for Cell and Cancer Cell.
