New Von Hoff award honors those championing, educating, and training cancer researchers


Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR
Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR

The American Association for Cancer Research will present a new scientific achievement award this year during the AACR Annual Meeting 2021 that recognizes significant contributions to the education and training of cancer researchers and other professionals at all career levels, especially of early-career and early-stage investigators.

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR, will be recognized as the inaugural recipient of the Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research. His associated award lecture will be one of more than 70 sessions available starting Friday, April 9, as part of the meeting’s featured On Demand content and will remain accessible to all registered attendees through June 21, 2021.

In addition to his scientific leadership and contributions to the discovery and development of many approved anticancer therapeutics now used routinely, Von Hoff has long been a champion and mentor of early-career and early-stage investigators. The AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop that he conceptualized and developed has become the premier workshop dedicated to educating clinical fellows and junior faculty clinical researchers in oncology specialties in the principles of effective clinical trial designs and therapeutic interventions. Since 1996, the workshop has trained more than 2,400 U.S. clinical fellows and junior faculty members in clinical research, while the workshop’s concept has since been globally adapted to similar workshops in Europe, Asia, and Latin America for the benefit of cancer patients worldwide. As a result of this unique training opportunity, more than 2,000 clinical investigators in countries outside the U.S. have been trained and have been able to save more lives from cancer.

Von Hoff is distinguished professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona; distinguished professor, Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research, at City of Hope in Duarte, California; Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research at HonorHealth Clinical Research Institute; Margaret Givan Larkin Endowed Chair in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics at Hoag Family Cancer Institute; chief scientific officer for US Oncology Research; and professor of medicine at the University of Arizona and the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. He served as AACR president in 1999-2000 and was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy in 2013.

“I am humbled and deeply grateful for this very special honor,” Von Hoff said. “I share this honor with my incredible colleagues and teachers, who have devoted many thousands of hours to training and mentoring the next generation of clinical investigators. Our goal together has always been to make sure patients would only be asked to participate in well-designed clinical trials, which would answer important questions impacting patient care.”

Future Von Hoff awards will be presented to those making significant contributions to the education and training of cancer scientists and physicians at any career level and in any area of cancer research.

The full list of 2021 AACR Scientific Achievement Awards will be released soon.