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Neuroblastoma Research Association presents lifetime achievement award
Garrett M. Brodeur, MD, a pediatric oncologist with the Cancer Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association’s lifetime achievement award.
Brodeur received the award for his work in the field of neuroblastoma, the most common solid tumor in children.
Brodeur’s research has focused on the identification of genes, proteins and biological pathways that allow for the development of neuroblastoma and drive its clinical behavior.
In the 1980s, he demonstrated that some neuroblastoma cells developed multiple copies of the MYCN gene. This effort helped identify a high-risk subtype of neuroblastoma that requires more aggressive treatment, and it set the stage for genomic analysis of tumors in children and adults.
Brodeur and colleagues also discovered neuroblastoma-related genetic changes, such as deletion of the short arm of chromosome 1 and loss of the CHD5 tumor suppressor gene. He collaborated with other CHOP researchers who identified the ALK gene as the gene responsible for most cases of hereditary neuroblastoma.
Brodeur, who joined CHOP’s medical staff in 1993, is the Audrey E. Evans endowed chair in pediatric oncology at the hospital. He also is a professor of pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is an associate director of the Abramson Cancer Center.