Nominations for the 2012 Award are now closed.
The Award and Lecture
This award was established in 1996 to recognize outstanding achievements in clinical cancer research. It is named for the late Dr. Joseph H. Burchenal, honorary member and past president of the AACR, and a major figure in clinical cancer research and chemotherapy.
The winner of the 17th Annual AACR Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research will give a 50-minute lecture during the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, in Chicago, IL, USA (March 31-April 4, 2012), receive an honorarium of $10,000, and be given support for the winner and a guest to attend the Annual Meeting.
Eligibility
- Candidacy is open to all cancer researchers who are affiliated with any institution involved in cancer research, cancer medicine or cancer-related biomedical science anywhere in the world. Such institutions include those in academia, industry or government.
- The award will be presented to an individual investigator.
- Institutions or organizations are not eligible for the award.
Nomination Procedure and Instructions
Nominations may be made by any scientist, whether an AACR member or nonmember, who is now or has been affiliated with any institution involved in cancer research, cancer medicine or cancer-related biomedical science. Candidates may not nominate themselves.
Selection
Candidates will be considered by a Selection Committee of international cancer leaders appointed by the president of the AACR. After careful deliberations by the committee, its recommendations will be forwarded to the Executive Committee of the AACR for final consideration and decision. Selection of the award winner will be made on the basis of the candidate's achievements in clinical cancer research. No regard will be given to age, race, gender, nationality, geographic location or religious or political views.
Supporter
Generously supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Questions?
Linda Brooks-Stokes, Program Associate
+1 (267) 646-0578; linda.stokes@aacr.org
American Association for Cancer Research
17th Floor, 615 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-4404
SPOTLIGHT
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16th Annual Recipient
Ching-Hon Pui, M.D.
Chair, Department of Oncology
American Cancer Society Professor
St. Jude's Cancer Research Hospital
Memphis, TN
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Dr. Ching-Hon Pui (center) delivered his award lecture entitled, Toward the Cure of Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011 in Orlando, FL. The award was presented by Dr. Marco M. Gottardis (left) of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Dr. Dwight G. Gilliland (right), Selection Committee Chairperson.
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Dr. Ching-Hon Pui has been at the forefront of leukemia research for the past three decades. His research efforts have facilitated numerous studies in leukemia cell biology and more importantly driven progress in leukemia treatment, leading to remarkable improvement of cure rates and revisions of medical practice. His pioneering efforts have led to the discontinuation of end-of-therapy testicular biopsy and more importantly, successful omission of prophylactic cranial irradiation in all patients, once regarded as a standard treatment for childhood leukemias, thus sparing patients from the devastating side effects of this treatment which were well studied by him.
By rapidly translating advances in cytogenetic, molecular genetic, pharmacodynamic and pharmacogenetic research into clinical trials, Dr. Pui and his team have been able to boost the cure rate for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia to 90% and that of acute myeloid leukemia to 70%, the best results achieved to date for the two diseases.
More recently, his treatment approach resulted in an exceptionally high cure rate approaching 90% in older adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a challenging subgroup of patients and could potentially be used to improve treatment outcome of young adult patients. Dr. Pui and his team also showed that with equal access to effective treatment, excellent results can be achieved in diverse ethnic, racial and socioeconomic groups, a finding with major public health implications.
Dr. Pui's contribution to the translational investigation of leukemia is notable. He was among the first to recognize a unique syndrome of topoisomerase inhibitor-induced acute myeloid leukemia and to suggest a treatment schedule that would reduce the carcinogenic effects of this class of agents. He was one of the first investigators to study mixed lymphoid-myeloid antigen expression on leukemic cells, and ultimately showed that this feature is useful for monitoring minimal residual leukemia.
In a randomized trial, he showed that granulocyte colony-stimulating factor has little clinical value when used as prophylactic therapy during remission induction of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a finding with important clinical and economic implications. His team provided the first evidence that individualized therapy based on pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of antileukemic drugs can improve outcome and reduce morbidities, a principle that can be used to improve the outcome of other types of cancer. His group is arguably among the best in the investigation of minimal residual leukemia. They demonstrated the importance of achieving molecular or immunological remission, a term that was coined by Dr. Pui.
His team pioneered the use of pharmacogenetics to individualize chemotherapy so that patients are not being over-or under-treated and used genome-wide analyses to accurately classify leukemias, to identify cooperative mutations and molecular targets for therapy, to optimize use of existing drugs, and to disclose genes associated with the development of leukemia. His organizational and leadership skills were instrumental in founding the International Childhood ALL Working Group in 1995 which has been very productive and making important clinical discoveries, and in helping many developing countries to access modern leukemia treatment. These accomplishments have helped to ensure that research progress in a few well-developed nations has a timely impact on leukemia therapy worldwide.
- Watch the 2011 award lecture.