The international award, to be given annually by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the Cancer Research Foundation of America, recognizes individuals anywhere in the world who have made seminal contributions in basic, translational, clinical, epidemiological or behavioral science investigations in cancer prevention research.
"We are thrilled that Dr. Michael Sporn is the inaugural winner of this prestigious award," said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., AACR's chief executive officer. "It's appropriate that this honor go to someone who has been the stalwart soldier for chemoprevention for decades. The field of cancer prevention is indebted to his dedication, commitment and hard work."
Said Dr. Sporn: "We need to think differently about cancer prevention, before people become sick. There is still tremendous resistance to the idea of telling people they have early changes in their cells that could some day lead to invasive cancer.
"The emphasis should be on suppressing carcinogenesis, the development of cancer, before it becomes evident as invasive or metastatic cancer. We need a whole educational mission to get people to think about cancer before they go to the doctor, for example, with a lump in their breast."
Dr. Sporn, the Oscar M. Cohn '34 Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, conducts research at the Norris Cotton Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is considered a visionary cancer researcher whose landmark investigations -- from molecular mechanistic studies to human interventions -- have established the conceptual framework for innovative approaches in cancer research, prevention and treatment.
Through both his groundbreaking research and innovative thinking and writing, Dr. Sporn has fundamentally changed our ideas about the dynamics of cancer, how it begins and grows in a process known as carcinogenesis.
Perhaps his most significant contribution is the concept of chemoprevention, a term which he coined in two landmark papers published in the early 1970s. His notion of chemoprevention challenged existing dogma of cancer therapy at the time, suggesting an approach other than the use of cytotoxic drugs to treat end-stage disease. Dr. Sporn was one of the first to perceive and exploit the chemopreventive potential of Vitamin A and its analogues, the retinoids (a term that he also coined), and he predicted the existence of receptors for these compounds years before their discovery. These fundamental studies continue to lead to strategies with vast potential for reducing cancer incidence and death.
His laboratory also was the first to characterize the peptide transforming growth factor-beta (TGFbeta) and demonstrate its role as a negative autocrine regulator of cell growth, and loss of that function in certain tumor cells.
Recently, Dr. Sporn re-entered the field of experimental carcinogenesis, focusing on the synergistic actions of a variety of chemopreventive agents including retinoids, vitamin D analogs, synthetic estrogen response modifiers and PPARgamma agonists.
Dr. Sporn will present a major lecture titled Chemoprevention: An Essential Approach for Control of Cancer--Some New Thoughts on this Problem during the first AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Meeting. This is the premier annual international meeting on cancer prevention research, which will be held October 14-18, 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts.
The AACR is pleased to co-sponsor this Award with the Cancer Research Foundation of America. CRFA is a national, non-profit health foundation with a single mission: the prevention and early detection of cancer through scientific research and education. Over the years, CRFA -- who has funded the award -- has made major contributions to ongoing programs of the AACR and therefore has been named a "Champion of the AACR."
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is a professional society of more than 19,000 laboratory and clinical scientists engaged in cancer research in the United States in more than 60 other countries. AACR's mission is to accelerate the prevention and cure of cancer through research, education, communication and advocacy. Its principal activities include the publication of five major peer-reviewed scientific journals (Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention). AACR's annual meeting attracts more than 15,000 participants who share new and significant discoveries in the cancer field, and the AACR's specialty meetings throughout the year focus on all the important areas of basic, translational and clinical cancer research.
(A high resolution photo of Dr. Sporn is available for downloading on the AACR website at http://www.aacr.org/1100na.asp)
Dartmouth Contact:
Hali Wickner
Director, Dartmouth Medical School Communications
1 Rope Ferry Road
Hanover, NH 03755-1404
phone: 603-650-1492
fax: 603-650-1730
email: hali.wickner@dartmouth.edu