Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio: Three Researchers in the Honor

Three leading researchers will be honored at this year's San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 4-8.

Ian Smith, MD, FRCP, FRCPE, will receive the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award.

Smith, professor of cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, will be recognized for his research and trials on aromatase inhibitors, his work on treatment by endocrine neoadjuvant patients with large cancer, and his contributions to training in oncology in the UK.

Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, will receive the AACR 2018 Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research.

Partridge, a professor of medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, will be recognized for her efforts to characterize the medical and psychological challenges facing young women with breast cancer. This work laid the foundation for future research in this poorly studied population.

Zena Werb, PhD, will be the recipient of the 2018 AACR Conference on Breast Cancer Research.

Werb, professor of anatomy and deputy director of basic science at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California at San Francisco, will be honored for her studies aimed at elucidating the mechanistic role of the extracellular microenvironment in regulation of the function of the epithelial cells of the breast. This work has greatly improved the understanding of mammary gland development, as well as progression of breast cancer and metastasis.

"These highly deserving recipients are why SABCS remains a leading global educational resource in the research and treatment of breast cancer," the symposium's co-director. C. Kent Osborne, MARYLAND, Director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center of Baylor College of Medicine, said in a press release. "Their lectures on their work fulfill our mission of providing scientists and doctors with cutting-edge information about breast cancer."

Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc) – The CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research, a cosponsor of SABCS – also congratulated the laureates for their "highly deserved awards".

"Their remarkable contributions in the field of research have helped advance science and medicine against breast cancer and have saved many breast cancer lives," Foti said in a statement.