Cancer researcher receives grant from The Mary Kay Foundation

Roger S. Lo
Roger S. Lo

Dr. Roger Lo, professor of dermatology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been awarded a $100,000 grant from The Mary Kay Foundation to conduct research that helps doctors and scientists better understand cancers that affect women.

One in three women are diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, and this year alone, more than 800,000 women are expected to be diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society. With cancer being the second-leading cause of death in women, The Mary Kay Foundation has made it a priority to support research of cancers affecting women at top medical schools and research facilities across the country.

The research will be led by Lo, a physician-scientist recognized for his work in understanding treatment-resistant melanoma. His laboratory’s research focuses on genomic, epigenomic and immunologic factors that shape the cancer’s evolution on molecularly targeted therapies and/or immune checkpoint inhibitors.

With this grant, Lo and members of his laboratory will test a treatment for certain types of ovarian cancer that involves a sequence of two types of drugs that match changing vulnerabilities of the cancer over time.

This is the third year UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has received this grant and the cancer center is one of only 12 cancer research institutions who were honored by The Mary Kay Foundation.