Joseph W. Kim Receives Prestigious 2021 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award

Joseph W. Kim, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) at Yale Cancer Center, has received a 2021 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award (CCITLA) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The award recognizes and supports outstanding mid-career clinical investigators at NCI-designated cancer centers who are working to improve the lives of people with cancer through NCI-funded collaborative clinical trials and whose leadership, participation, and activities promote clinical trials and research. Kim is one of ten recipients of the CCITLA for 2021. “I am honored to be named one of this year’s NCI CCITLA award recipients," said Kim. "As a physician and clinical researcher, my research is dedicated to developing clinical trials that will ultimately improve the treatment outcomes for patients with prostate, bladder, and other genitourinary (GU) cancers.”

According to the NCI, Kim was nominated for the award based on his intent and ability to promote a successful clinical research culture and to pursue an academic career in clinical research. His qualifications, interests, accomplishments, and motivation were reviewed in the selection process. The award provides salary support for two years to fund his clinical research efforts.

Kim serves as a study chair for three Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) clinical trials and a site principal investigator of multiple ETCTN and National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) clinical trials in prostate and bladder cancer as well as industry sponsored trials. Kim is an active member of the SWOG Cancer Research Network GU Organ Site Committee and Prostate Cancer subcommittee and ETCTN’s Disease Focused Clinical Investigators for genitourinary malignancies.

As a recipient of a 2021 CCITLA Award, Kim will focus his research on bladder preservation through the NCI-funded interdisciplinary bladder preservation trial, by streamlining a pathway for biospecimen banking, and designing additional clinical trials for bladder cancer.

“The NCI is pleased to recognize these ten talented investigators who dedicate themselves to the conduct of NCI cancer clinical trials,” commented Sheila Prindiville, MD, Director of the NCI’s Coordinating Center for Clinical Trials. “These awardees have outstanding leadership skills and will be conducting clinical trials in a range of adult cancer types, testing new cancer therapies, developing critical biomarkers, and moving the field of personalized medicine forward.”

About Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital Yale Cancer Center (YCC) is one of only 51 National Cancer Institute (NCI-designated comprehensive cancer) centers in the nation and the only such center in Connecticut. Cancer treatment for patients is available at Smilow Cancer Hospital through 13 multidisciplinary teams and at 15 Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Centers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Smilow Cancer Hospital is accredited by the Commission on Cancer, a Quality program of the American College of Surgeons. Comprehensive cancer centers play a vital role in the advancement of the NCI’s goal of reducing morbidity and mortality from cancer through scientific research, cancer prevention, and innovative cancer treatment.