Two Keck School of Medicine alumni are recipients of a prestigious award handed out by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG).

Anthony El-Khoueiry and Omid Hamid are two of four young physicians chosen after a rigorous and competitive application process to participate in the “Young Investigators” Training Course conducted by SWOG. El-Khoueiry was chief fellow and now a clinical instructor at USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Hamid is a clinical fellow in the division of oncology. The training program is designed to develop the specific skills essential to design and conduct cancer clinical trials. Through this program, physician researchers receive intensive training in statistical principles, data collection and analysis, critical decision-making, protocol development and SWOG procedures.

With a network of nearly 4,000 physician-investigators extending across the United States Canada and Puerto Rico, SWOG is one of the largest cooperative groups supported by the National Cancer Institute. Recognizing the growing need for an infusion of new investigators into the ranks of cancer researchers, SWOG initiated the innovative program in 1999 with support of the The Hope Foundation.

El-Khoueiry and Hamid spent four days at the group’s operations office in San Antonio, and four days with the statisticians at the SWOG Statistical Center in Seattle.

El-Khoueiry’s research focuses on development of novel therapies for treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, incorporating pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics with pharmacogenomics. Hamid’s research focuses on development of an effective treatment for advanced or metastatic soft-tissue sarcomas.