The full patient journey, not just the treatment phase
In the long effort to make cancer treatment not only effective but endurable, Dr. Shing Fung Lee has been recognized by the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer with its 2026 Emerging Investigator Award. His work — focused on the skin damage that radiation and chemotherapy leave behind, both in the acute moment and across the years of survivorship — represents a quiet but consequential frontier: the space between surviving cancer and living well afterward. The honor reflects a growing conviction within oncology that quality of life is not a secondary concern, but a measure of care as meaningful as survival itself.
- Skin toxicities from radiation and chemotherapy can be severe enough to interrupt treatment, alter outcomes, and leave lasting physical and psychological harm — yet this domain has long sat in the shadow of curative research.
- Dr. Lee stepped into that gap, leading a 2025 clinical practice statement on preventing acute radiation dermatitis with specific topical interventions, giving clinicians concrete, evidence-based tools for patient guidance.
- He simultaneously led a systematic review on chronic skin toxicities in breast cancer survivors, confronting the slower, quieter suffering that persists long after active treatment ends.
- His consistent co-authorship across multiple MASCC initiatives signals not a single breakthrough but a sustained, collaborative presence in the infrastructure of supportive care science.
- MASCC's decision to elevate this work with a named award sends a clear institutional signal: managing the human cost of cancer treatment is not peripheral to oncology — it is central to it.
Dr. Shing Fung Lee has been named the 2026 Emerging Investigator Award recipient by the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, an honor reflecting two years of sustained leadership within the organization's research groups focused on skin complications and long-term patient outcomes.
His contributions are oriented toward practical clinical problems. As lead author, he shaped a 2025 clinical practice statement on preventing and managing acute radiation dermatitis — the painful skin damage that can accompany cancer radiation therapy — offering clinicians evidence-based guidance on specific topical interventions. The work was published in Supportive Care in Cancer, a journal at the intersection of oncology and quality-of-life research.
In parallel, Lee led a systematic review examining chronic skin toxicities that persist in breast cancer survivors long after treatment ends — not the acute injuries of active therapy, but the lasting effects that shape daily life for months and years. Published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, this work bridges the immediate crisis of cancer treatment with the longer arc of recovery. He also contributed as co-author to multiple additional MASCC research papers, reflecting both productivity and deep collaborative engagement.
The award recognizes a pattern of consistent, substantive participation in work that rarely attracts the fanfare of novel drug discoveries, yet directly shapes how patients experience treatment and life afterward. In honoring this research, MASCC affirms that supportive care — the management of side effects and the preservation of quality of life — deserves the same rigor and visibility as curative medicine itself.
Dr. Shing Fung Lee has been named the 2026 Emerging Investigator Award recipient by the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, an honor that recognizes early-to-mid-career researchers who have meaningfully shaped the organization's work in recent years. The award arrives on the strength of Lee's sustained involvement with MASCC's research infrastructure over the past two years, particularly his leadership within two critical study groups focused on skin complications and long-term patient outcomes.
The specifics of Lee's contributions reveal a researcher oriented toward practical clinical problems. He served as lead author on a 2025 clinical practice statement addressing the prevention and management of acute radiation dermatitis—the painful skin damage that can result from cancer radiation therapy—using two specific topical products, Mepitel Film and Hydrofilm. That statement was published in Supportive Care in Cancer, a journal that sits at the intersection of oncology and quality-of-life research. The work represents the kind of granular, evidence-based guidance that clinicians need when counseling patients about what to expect and how to protect themselves during treatment.
In parallel, Lee led a systematic review and meta-analysis examining chronic skin toxicities that persist in breast cancer survivors long after their initial treatment concludes. This work, published in 2025 in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, takes on a different temporal dimension—not the acute injuries of active therapy, but the lasting effects that shape survivors' daily lives months and years later. Both projects sit within MASCC's Oncodermatology and Survivorship Study Groups, suggesting Lee's work bridges the immediate medical crisis of cancer treatment with the longer arc of recovery and adaptation.
Beyond these two lead-authored publications, Lee has contributed as a co-author to multiple additional papers emerging from MASCC research initiatives, indicating both productivity and collaborative engagement within the organization's broader research ecosystem. The award recognizes not a single breakthrough but rather a pattern of consistent, substantive participation in the kind of work that often receives less fanfare than novel drug discoveries or genetic findings, yet directly affects how patients experience treatment and life afterward.
The recognition signals a particular institutional priority: that supportive care—the management of treatment side effects and the preservation of quality of life during and after cancer therapy—deserves the same rigor and visibility as curative interventions themselves. Skin toxicity from radiation and chemotherapy can be severe enough to interrupt treatment, compromise outcomes, or leave lasting physical and psychological marks. By elevating research in this domain, MASCC is affirming that understanding and preventing these complications is not peripheral to cancer care but central to it.
Notable Quotes
Dr. Lee has been highly and consistently engaged in MASCC study group research initiatives over the past two years, with major contributions to the Oncodermatology and Survivorship Study Groups.— Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
What makes this award different from other early-career recognitions in oncology?
It's specifically about sustained engagement with a research organization's work, not just publishing impact. MASCC is saying Lee didn't just write papers—he showed up, participated in study groups, and shaped the direction of their research over two years.
Why focus on skin toxicity when there are so many other side effects from cancer treatment?
Because it's visible, it's common, and it's often overlooked. Radiation dermatitis and chronic skin damage can be severe enough to stop treatment or cause lasting distress. Lee's work is saying: this matters, and we can manage it better.
The award mentions both acute and chronic skin problems. Are those fundamentally different challenges?
Completely. Acute radiation dermatitis is immediate—you're treating it during therapy. Chronic toxicity is what survivors live with years later. Lee's work spans both, which suggests he's thinking about the full patient journey, not just the treatment phase.
Does this kind of research influence actual clinical practice?
That's the whole point of a clinical practice statement. It's not a research paper sitting in a journal—it's guidance that oncologists and nurses use when they're talking to patients about what to expect and how to protect their skin.
What does it say about cancer research that this award exists at all?
It says the field is maturing. We're moving beyond just asking "does this cure cancer?" to asking "what's the quality of that survival?" Supportive care research used to be an afterthought. Now it's getting recognized as essential.