Jack Cuzick, PhD, Honored With 2023 William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award
SAN ANTONIO – Jack Cuzick, PhD, will receive the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), December 5-9 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.
The William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award was established in 1992 to commemorate McGuire’s significant contributions to breast oncology. McGuire, along with Charles A. Coltman, MD, founded SABCS in 1977.
Cuzick is head of the Cancer Prevention unit within the Centre for Prevention, Detection and Diagnosis and the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London. Cuzick is being recognized for his unparalleled contributions to the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and his commitment to transdisciplinary collaboration and leadership in the field.
As a statistician involved in cancer treatment trials, Cuzick observed that patients with breast cancer who received adjuvant tamoxifen had reduced incidence of a second cancer forming in the opposite breast. This led Cuzick to propose tamoxifen as a prophylactic for women at increased risk of breast cancer. He has since led multiple international trials that have confirmed the ability of tamoxifen to reduce the risk of breast cancer. In addition, Cuzick co-developed the Tyrer-Cuzick model, a leading breast cancer risk prediction model, and data from one of his trials, the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study I (IBIS-I), established mammographic density as a modifiable risk biomarker.
Further, Cuzick was one of the key investigators who designed the seminal Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination (ATAC) trial, which established that the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole was more effective than tamoxifen in the adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal patients with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer. Based on these findings, Cuzick launched the IBIS-II trial to evaluate the preventive potential of anastrozole in women at high risk of breast cancer or with a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). This trial confirmed that anastrozole was more effective as a primary preventive agent than tamoxifen.
“I am very honored to receive this award. It has been a long but immensely satisfying journey from pure mathematics to cancer prevention,” said Cuzick. “Substantial progress has been made, but breast cancer is still the most common cancer in women, and there’s a lot more to be done.”
Cuzick has received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including election as a Fellow of the Royal Society (2016) and Academy of Medical Sciences (2003) and selection as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (2010). He received a place on Thomson Reuters’ “Highly Cited Researchers” list (2014-2019), the Cancer Research UK Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research Prize (2017), the Claremont Graduate University Distinguished Alumni Award (2017), the Order of the British Empire Award (2017), the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor (2015), the Robert Sutherland Award for Excellence in Translational Research (2015), the American Association for Cancer Research-Prevent Cancer Foundation Award for Excellence in Cancer Prevention Research (2012), and the EUROGIN Distinguished Service Award (2004).
“Dr. Cuzick is a renowned scientist whose research has benefited innumerable patients. His impact in the field of prevention and treatment of early-stage breast cancer is felt every day in our clinic,” said Virginia Kaklamani, MD, SABCS co-director. “It is truly an honor for us to award him with the McGuire Award.” Cuzick’s award lecture will be held on Wednesday, December 6, at 8:30 a.m. CT.
Download a photo Dr. Cuzick