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Investigators receive Laura Ziskin Prize in Translational Research
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Silvia Formenti, MD, and Heather McArthur, MD, MPH, received the 2019 Laura Ziskin Prize in Translational Research.
Stand Up to Cancer presented the $250,000 research grant to Formenti and McArthur, who will work with immunologists, bioinformatics specialists and biostatisticians on a yearlong project to use radiation and immunotherapy preoperatively to help the body create its own vaccine to fight breast cancer. A clinical trial is in development.
Formenti is chair of the department of radiation oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, associate director of Meyer Cancer Center, and radiation oncologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. She is a recognized leader in breast cancer research and is known for her expertise in the use of radiation therapy for cancer treatment.
McArthur is medical director for breast oncology at Cedars-Sinai. Her research has focused on novel immuno-oncology strategies for breast cancer. She is evaluating the effect of tumor destruction with cryoablation or radiation in combination with immune stimulation for women with early-stage disease.
Formenti and McArthur received the award at this year’s SU2C Scientific Summit in Santa Monica, Calif.
“These two doctors, with their complementary backgrounds, have serious potential to develop treatment protocols that could provide better outcomes for breast cancer patients and perhaps reduce mortality,” selection committee chair John Glaspy, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, said in a press release.