V. Craig Jordan, PhD, DSc, FAACR, a pharmacologist and a pioneer of hormone therapy for the treatment of breast cancer, died June 9, 2024, at the age of 76.
In the 1970s, Jordan was the first to discover the breast cancer preventive properties of tamoxifen, a type of drug known as a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM). Studies in his laboratory showed that use of tamoxifen and raloxifene, another SERM, by postmenopausal women combatted cancer without reducing bone density or increasing blood cholesterol. These revolutionary findings resulted in the long-term use of tamoxifen to treat breast cancer and prevent its recurrence, and the establishment of raloxifene use for prevention of osteoporosis. To date, tamoxifen remains one of the most widely used anti-estrogen drugs in breast cancer treatment worldwide.
Born in New Braunfels, Texas, to an American father and English mother in 1947, Jordan grew up in Britain. An early fascination with chemistry led to his education at Leeds University, where he earned a doctorate in 1972. He also earned a doctorate in science from Leeds in 1986. The university awarded him an honorary medical degree in 2001.
At Leeds, he first began to work with a drug created by ICI Pharmaceuticals that was being investigated as a potential contraceptive. The drug, later reworked into tamoxifen, failed to prevent contraception in women but did show some activity against breast cancer. Jordan spent two years at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, investigating tamoxifen’s effect on estrogen receptors and its potential as a treatment for breast cancer.
In 1974, he returned to Leeds University as a lecturer in pharmacology, followed by a year at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Bern in Switzerland. In 1980, he became an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied the effects of tamoxifen and raloxifene on bone density and coronary systems. He became a full professor in 1985.
In 1993, he joined Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago as professor of cancer pharmacology and director of the breast cancer research program at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
In 2005, he became the Alfred G. Knudson Chair of Cancer Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, moving in 2009 to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, as professor of oncology and pharmacology and scientific director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In 2014, he became professor of breast medical oncology and molecular and cellular oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
In addition to his academic career, he served from 1971 to 1975 as a captain in the intelligence corps of the British army and from 1975 to 1979 as a reserve officer in the Special Air Service (SAS), the famed British commando unit.
He received many recognitions throughout his distinguished career, including the Medal of Honor for Basic Research from the American Cancer Society in 2002, the Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation in 2003, the American Society of Clinical Oncology David A. Karnofsky Award in 2008, and the Goodman and Gillman Award in Drug Receptor Pharmacology of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) in 2012.
Jordan was also elected a Fellow of the U.K. Academy of Medical Sciences in 2009, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2009, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2017. Queen Elizabeth II made him an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 and a companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George in 2019.
A member of the AACR since 1981, Jordan served on several AACR committees—including the Publications Committee and the Research Grant Review Committee—and was a member of the editorial boards of Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, and Cancer Prevention Research. He served as an elected member of the AACR Board of Directors from 2007-2010 and on the Board of Trustees of the AACR Foundation from 2003-2018.
During his tenure as an AACR Foundation trustee, Jordan also served as the Founding Chairman of the President’s Circle from 2003-2010, and he was honored for his extraordinary leadership in support of the AACR’s mission. He also received the AACR-Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award (with Leonard J. Lerner) in 1989 and the inaugural Dorothy P. Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research (with Elwood V. Jensen) in 2002. In 2013, he was elected to the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy.
“V. Craig Jordan was a brilliant scientist whose discoveries changed the lives of generations of women faced with a breast cancer diagnosis,” said Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR. “He was also a compassionate mentor who shaped the career paths of countless early-career researchers. He will be dearly missed throughout the cancer research community.”
Leave your remembrance of Dr. Jordan below (limit 1,000 characters).
What a remarkable person and scientist. Craig was a scholar whose writings we read with intense interest, his work spawned generations of investigations worldwide, and impacted even more patients.
Craig Jordan was my dear friend and mentor. I am very proud of the accomplishments of all the people who trained and collaborated with the Jordan Lab. His legacy is something that will endure for breast cancer patients going forward.
I will miss you greatly. Sleep restful my friend.
An incredible individual who was at the forefront of thinking about SERMS and endocrine sensitivity and resistance. He was always interested in new ideas and promoting careers of young investigators in the field. He will be greatly missed.