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NCI scientist to receive Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research
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Steven A. Rosenberg, MD, PhD, will receive the 2019 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research.
The annual prize, awarded by National Foundation for Cancer Research, recognizes Rosenberg’s role in the development of adoptive immunotherapy to treat cancer.
The award will be presented April 27 in Washington.
“I’m honored to receive the Szent-Györgyi Prize, and to be in the company of the scientists who have been recognized with this award,” Rosenberg, chief of NCI’s Center for Cancer Research, said in an NCI-issued press release. “We’re still learning about what immunotherapy can do for cancer patients, and we’re very excited about the advances to come.”
Rosenberg developed the first effective gene therapies and immunotherapies for certain patients with advanced cancer, and he was the first person to successfully insert genetically modified T cells into humans. He has helped lead immunotherapy trials that led to regression of several metastatic cancers, including melanoma, sarcoma and lymphoma.
“Dr. Rosenberg’s groundbreaking work has changed cancer research and what we know about treatment, but his findings have also immeasurably changed patients’ lives,” Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD, who has served as NCI director since 2017 but recently was named acting FDA commissioner, said in a press release. “We are proud to see him awarded the Szent-Györgyi Prize, which recognizes work that has lasting impact while also honoring the importance of basic research in understanding cancer.”