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"I
am grateful for the recognition by my colleagues of my research contribution
and for the opportunity to help so many people."
Druker, a professor of
medicine at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine, helped
develop STI571 (now called Glivec), a pill that has sent thousands of
patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) into [hematologic] remission. The pill
currently is in Phase III clinical trials at more than 30 sites around the
world and has just been submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for
approval.
Supported by the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation, the
Rosenthal Award recognizes translational research that has made or gives the
promise of soon making a notable contribution to improved clinical care in
the field of cancer. The award is restricted to recipients engaged in the
practice of medicine who are younger than 50 years of age at the time of the
award to provide incentives to early career investigators.
Along with the
award, Druker will be granted a lectureship on his research at the AACR's
92nd Annual Meeting in New Orleans, March 24-28. Druker's lecture,
"Inhibition of the BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase as a Therapeutic Strategy for
CML: A Model For Molecular Pathogenetic Targeting," will take place as part
of the meeting's plenary session on March 25.
Founded in 1907, the AACR is
a nonprofit professional organization of more than 17,000 laboratory and
clinical scientists engaged in cancer research in the United States, Canada
and more than 60 other countries.
Druker also is the fourth recipient of
the Emil J. Freireich Award for Clinical Research, awarded by the
Foundations of Clinical Cancer Research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in
Texas. The award recognizes excellence in cancer research among young
clinical investigators. The award will be presented at the Foundations of
Clinical Cancer Research symposium March 8-9.
Druker also is being honored
with the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Foundation Prize for Cancer Research
Award 2001. This award is presented annually to scientists who are active
internationally in the field of fundamental cancer research.
Clinical trials
for Glivec are under way in more than a dozen countries, representing the
largest such study of an experimental drug in cancer research history.
Druker will travel to Zurich on March 14 to accept the award.
"My work has
been built on the efforts of numerous cancer researchers," said Druker. "I
am grateful for the recognition by my colleagues of my research contribution
and for the opportunity to help so many people."
About 5,000 Americans each
year are diagnosed with CML, a disease characterized by an excessive
proliferation of white blood cells. Over time, those cells shut down the
body's immune system and cause death. Glivec, developed by Druker in
collaboration with scientists at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, targets the
enzyme that causes the excessive white blood cells and leaves other cells
alone.
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