Renowned UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center researcher Dr. Dennis Slamon, whose work led to the development of the molecularly targeted breast cancer drug Herceptin, has been chosen to receive the Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research.
The international award, offered by the Kirk A. and Dorothy P. Landon Foundation and the American Association for Cancer Research, is the largest prize offered to cancer researchers from a professional society of their peers. Slamon will receive an unrestricted award of $200,000 and will present a scientific lecture at the AACR annual meeting, held in April in Toronto, Canada.
"I am very grateful and honored to be acknowledged by the AACR for this work. The development of targeted therapies like Herceptin is ushering in a new age in how we treat cancer," said Slamon, director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "But the real heroines of the Herceptin story are the hundreds of women who were committed enough to try this drug in clinical trials. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my colleagues and coworkers at the Jonsson Cancer Center and at the Revlon Foundation for their continued support of this work."
Being honored with Slamon is Dr. Charles J. Sherr, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator based at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, who will receive the Kirk A. Landon-AACR Prize for Basic Research.
"We are proud that these two scientists who have made such tremendous contributions to our understanding of cancer are being honored this year with the Landon-AACR Prizes," said Margaret Foti, the AACR's chief executive officer. "Their exciting work underscores the importance of basic and translational research in accelerating progress against cancer and in bringing its benefits to patients."
Slamon was the primary force behind the development of Herceptin during 12 years of discovery and development research in his lab and clinic. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved the drug in 1998 for use against advanced breast cancer. Slamon currently is investigating whether Herceptin is effective in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.
Development of this molecularly targeted drug has been cited as the first triumph in an emerging wave of new, more effective therapies designed to fight cancer at its genetic roots. Slamon, for the first time, proved the theory that if researchers could figure out what was broken in a cancer cell, they could fix it.
Fran Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, praised Slamon's work, saying his "passion and persistence in the area of breast cancer and oncogene research resulted in a treatment that has extended the lives of countless breast cancer patients."
"His work in this area continues to be an example of how laboratory research on genetic alterations that lead to cancer can be translated into effective and targeted treatments," Visco said.
The development of Herceptin marks the high point of Slamon's life's work to date. His research established the relationship between a gene called HER-2/neu and a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. In addition to conducting the initial research that led to Herceptin, Slamon also served as principal investigator for the worldwide phase III clinical trials, the final round of testing prior to FDA approval.
Judith C. Gasson, scientist and director of UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, said Slamon has "magnificently blended the art of healing with scientific discovery."
"His scientific achievements go beyond their impact on breast cancer, and prove the principle that if we can identify the genetic alterations in cancer, we can develop effective targeted therapies and save lives," Gasson said. "I think we can now say that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the war on cancer."
The Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research is the latest in a string of honors collected by Slamon for his work on Herceptin.
In October 1998, Visco and the National Breast Cancer Coalition honored Slamon with the prestigious Public Advocacy Award. In January 1999, he received the Albert B. Sabin Heroes of Science Award from Americans for Medical Progress. At the American Association for Cancer Research conference in April 1999, Slamon received the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award. Also in 1999, the Women of Los Angeles honored him with a Highlight Award for his work and GQ magazine and General Motors honored Slamon as one of five "Men for the Cure." In March 2000, Slamon received the Translational Medicine Award from the USCD-Salk Institute for "meritorious service and outstanding contributions to the field of antibody therapy for human cancer." In April 2000, Slamon received the Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology Millennium Award for significant achievement and leadership in breast cancer research. In October 2001, Slamon was awarded the Wadsworth Center's Brown-Hazen Award for Excellence in the Basic Sciences, and in March 2002, he received the Jeffrey A. Gottlieb Memorial Award from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas.
Other honors Slamon has won include the Milken Family Medical Foundation Award for Cancer Research, the Upjohn Award in Internal Medicine and the Outstanding Young Investigator Award.
In addition to serving as director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program and head of Clinical/Translational Research at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, Slamon is a professor of medicine, chief of the UCLA Division of Hematology/Oncology and executive vice chair for research for UCLA's Department of Medicine. He also heads up the medical advisory board for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, a fund-raising organization started by philanthropist Lilly Tartikoff, NBC "Today" show host Katie Couric, who lost her husband to colon cancer, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
The Landon/AACR Prizes in Cancer Research were launched in the summer of 2002 to promote and reward seminal contributions to the understanding of cancer through basic and translational cancer research. The prestigious prizes are designed to bring heightened a public attention to landmark achievements in the continuing effort to prevent and cure cancer.
Founded in 1907, the AACR is a professional society of more than 18,000 laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in cancer research in the United States, Canada, and more than 60 other countries.
Slamon lives in Woodland Hills, Calif., with his wife and two children.
RSS