Director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center;
Benjamin F. Byrd, Jr. Chair in Oncology;
Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee
For groundbreaking research that has transformed our understanding of breast cancer at both the molecular and clinical level. His work has defined how PI3K/AKT signaling becomes deregulated during tumor progression, providing critical insights into therapeutic resistance, invasion, and metastasis. Most notably, Dr. Park pioneered the use of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) as a minimally invasive biomarker, revolutionizing precision cancer medicine by enabling the detection of genetic mutations, monitoring of disease progression, and tracking of minimal residual disease in breast cancer patients, in turn making it possible to identify metastatic potential in early-stage patients before disease progression.
The AACR established the AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research, which is generously supported by Aflac, Inc., to recognize outstanding science that has inspired, or has the potential to inspire, new perspectives on the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of breast cancer. To learn more, please visit the press release.
View Past Recipients.