Lung Cancer Researchers Honored With The "NEW" Hope Now Awards

Main Category: Lung Cancer
Article Date: 01 Jan 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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A new award, the "Hope Now Award for Lung Cancer Research," was announced to honor outstanding research efforts in lung cancer research. The award is established by Chawla Hope Initiatives, a philanthropic fund established by a Lung Cancer survivor and a retired CEO, Mr. Prem Chawla and is offered through Joan's Legacy.

The annual Hope Now Award is intended for the research lab and its leader showing the most progress in lung cancer research in a particular year. The purpose of the award is to publicly honor and recognize excellence in lung research and to encourage development of novel treatment options for lung cancer survivors. In establishing the award, Chawla noted, "Many lung cancer survivors develop resistance to a few available treatments quickly, we must, therefore, honor researchers who are in the fore-front of making valiant effort to overcome this critical challenge and are working hard on bringing new treatments to patients."

The 2007 Hope Now awardees are Pasi Jänne, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and William Pao, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Both awardees are medical oncologists who specialize in treating patients with lung cancer, as well as translational researchers focused on non-small cell lung cancer. Both Dr. Janne and Dr Pao appreciated receiving the award and stated that "such recognition from lung cancer survivor community means a lot."

Dr. Jänne's main research interests include the study of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in non-small cell lung cancer and their impact on the efficacy of EGFR-targeted therapeutic agents. EGFR mutations occur primarily in never smokers. These patients have very high response rates to EGFR inhibitors. Dr. Jänne's lab has studied mechanisms of developing resistance to EGFR inhibitors and novel ways to overcome this resistance.

Dr. Pao's primary interest lies in identifying mutations in genes that may play a role in lung tumors. He is also studying why some patients and not others respond to targeted therapies such as gefitinib (Iressa) and erlotinib (Tarceva). Dr. Pao first reported the link between EGFR mutations and EGFR TKI response in never smokers. He also discovered the causes of relapse in never-smoking patients with initial benefit from gefitinib and erlotinib.

A nationally recognized medical Committee, affiliated with Joan's Legacy, nominated several candidates for the awards recognizing leading lung cancer research labs, with a specific individual as the recipient. Because of the excellence both of this year's awardees have shown, the decision was made by Chawla Hope Initiatives to give each of them a one year award to apply towards lung cancer research.

More information can be found at http://www.hope-now-awards.org.