UCLA Fielding researcher receives American Association for Cancer Research "Early Career Scholar in the Field of Cancer Research Award"

A postdoctoral researcher at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health has been recognized by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for her research examining how community conditions may affect survival among women with breast cancer.

The AACR’s “Early Career Scholar in the Field of Cancer Research Award,” is highly competitive and recognizes outstanding young investigators, according to officials of the Philadelphia-based research association; Ho’s award is supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD), itself part of the National Institutes of Health. 

“I am very grateful to the AACR and the CRCHD for this recognition and their support of my work,” said Ho, who has earned undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees at UCLA, Yale, and Johns Hopkins, respectively. “My research focuses on whether changes in social vulnerability in the U.S., by county, are associated with the risk of dying from breast cancer or other causes among breast cancer survivors.”

Specifically, she is analyzing how poverty, housing, transportation, and access to healthcare resources may shape health outcomes after a breast cancer diagnosis. Ho’s work started at Johns Hopkins where she trained in spatial and cancer epidemiology; she will present her research at the AACR’s 19th Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Atlanta in October.

At UCLA, she brings her expertise to a broader effort, led by Dr. Kekoa Taparra, a physician and assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at UCLA Fielding and in the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Taparra also works at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“This effort is designed to better understand why cancer outcomes differ across communities,” Taparra said. “This research can provide insight into who faces greater risks and help inform strategies to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes, depending on where people live.”