Award Winners Named for the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), an SABCS cosponsor, will honor two researchers for their significant contributions to breast cancer research at the 2020 SABCS, to be held virtually December 8-11.

Susan E. Hankinson, ScD, MPH, is the recipient of the 2020 AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research award, supported by Aflac Inc. Sherene Loi, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, FAHMS will receive the 2020 AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

“These researchers have greatly contributed to our understanding of breast cancer etiology, development, and recurrence. Their findings have helped to inform new methods of prevention and treatment that hold great promise for patients,” said Carlos Arteaga, MD, FAACR, ex officio member of both award selection committees, Past President of the AACR, and director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. “We applaud Dr. Hankinson and Dr. Loi for their hard work and dedication and are thrilled to honor them with these awards at this year’s SABCS.”

Hankinson is distinguished professor of epidemiology and associate dean for research in the School of Public Health & Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Hankinson is being recognized for her contributions to fundamental population-based research that has provided insights into the hormonal etiology of breast cancer. She has led pivotal research on the role of circulating estrogens in predicting breast cancer risk in both postmenopausal and premenopausal women. This has led to the development of chemopreventive drugs and an understanding of how lifestyle alterations such as reducing adiposity, increasing physical activity, and lowering alcohol intake may further reduce breast cancer risk. Her additional research to improve risk prediction models has the potential to help stratify women’s risk of breast cancer and identify those who may benefit from chemoprevention and screening.

Hankinson will present a lecture titled “Biomarkers in population-based breast cancer research: insights into etiology and risk prediction.”

Loi is a consultant medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of breast cancer, the medical oncology trial lead for breast cancer at the Parkville Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, and head of the Translational Breast Cancer Genomics and Therapeutics Laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. She is also a professor at the University of Melbourne and a National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia Endowed Chair. Loi is being recognized for her leadership in integrating translational research into clinical trials and bringing immunotherapy to the breast cancer treatment arena. Her research focuses on the interaction between the breast cancer genome and the immune landscape, and how this interaction relates to therapy response and resistance. She has been at the forefront of research on the biological and clinical relevance of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in breast cancer and a pioneer in designing and executing clinical trials using immunotherapy agents for the treatment of breast cancer.

Loi will present a lecture titled “Journey into breast cancer immunology using genomics”

Both lectures will be available for on-demand viewing beginning Wednesday, December 9, at 8 a.m. CST.