Breast cancer researcher receives outstanding investigator award
SAN ANTONIO — Christina Curtis, PhD, MSc, received this year’s AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research.
San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and American Association for Cancer Research — a cosponsor of SABCS — presented the award, supported by Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
The award recognizes an investigator whose novel and significant work has had or may have a far-reaching impact on the etiology, detection, diagnosis, treatment or prevention of breast cancer. The work can be conducted in any biomedical research discipline, including clinical, basic, translational or epidemiologic studies.
Curtis — who presented her award lecture at SABCS — received the award for her contributions to the understanding of molecular determinants of breast cancer, as well as for her efforts to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers.
Curtis is director of AI and cancer genomics, as well as RZ Cao professor of medicine, genetics and biomedical data science, at Stanford University School of Medicine. Curtis also serves as director of breast cancer translational research and co-director of the molecular tumor board at Stanford Cancer Institute.
Curtis participated in a landmark study that described a new integrated molecular classification of breast cancer based on gene expression data and genome-wide copy number data from a cohort of 2,000 women. The findings identified 11 subgroups of breast cancer with unique genomic drivers and clinical outcomes, helping to redefine the molecular landscape of the disease.
Curtis conducted research that offered new insights into the molecular alterations that contribute to breast cancer recurrence. This work laid the foundation for insights that improved the prediction of late distant relapse.
Her work led to the initiation of a phase 2 clinical trial designed to assess new targeted therapies for early-stage ER-positive breast cancer. She also developed several predictive biomarkers that are used to stratify patients.