Laura J. van ’t Veer, PhD, Honored With 2024 William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award

SAN ANTONIO – Laura J. van ’t Veer, PhD, will receive the William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) 2024, to be held December 10-13 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The William L. McGuire Memorial Lecture Award was established in 1992 to commemorate McGuire’s significant contributions to breast oncology. McGuire, along with Charles A. Coltman, MD, founded SABCS in 1977.

Van ’t Veer is professor and Angela and Shu Kai Chan Endowed Chair in Cancer Research in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She is also the director of applied genomics and leader of the Breast Oncology Program for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Van ’t Veer is being recognized for her trailblazing work in advancing risk stratification, subtyping, and improved treatment for early breast cancer through the invention of MammaPrint and her leading efforts within the I-SPY 2 trials, respectively.

Van ’t Veer is internationally recognized as a leader in molecular biology. Her research focuses on personalized medicine and aims to advance patient management based on the knowledge of the genetic makeup of the tumor and patient. She developed MammaPrint, a lab test that is used to help predict the likelihood that breast cancer will come back or spread to other parts of the body by looking at the activity level of 70 different genes in breast cancer tissue. In 2016, the results of the MINDACT trial showed that 46% of clinically high-risk breast cancer patients who typically would undergo chemotherapy could safely forgo treatment based on a low-risk MammaPrint result.

In her recent work, van ’t Veer was responsible for building the scientific platform for the nationwide I-SPY 2 trial. Her persistent and focused efforts since the first I-SPY trials were launched have led to the development of a valuable biomarker bank of clinically annotated tissue and blood samples for over 3,000 high-risk early breast cancer patients. Following this research, van ’t Veer and her colleagues described five response predictive subtypes based on several novel gene expression signatures that predicted which patients would benefit the most from a specific therapy. This is currently being tested in the next generation of I-SPY trials.

“I’m very honored to have been selected to receive the 2024 award. Individualizing breast cancer treatment was the passion of William McGuire, as it is mine,” said van ’t Veer. “I’m super excited that our biomarker discoveries predicting which patients benefit from chemotherapy—what targeted therapy, including immunotherapy, further improves their outcomes—have found their way to standard of care and into clinical trials. Avoiding unnecessary treatment and avoiding side effects can be as important as finding the treatment that works for each individual patient.”    

Van ’t Veer has been honored with numerous awards throughout her career, including the OncLive Giants of Cancer Care Award (2020), the Inspire2Live Patient Advocate Hero of Cancer Award (2020), the Precision Medicine World Conference Luminary Award (2020), the European Cancer Organisation Clinical Research Award (2017), the European Inventor Award (2015), the Breast Cancer Research Foundation Pink Ribbon Grant Award (since 2015, and 2007-2010), the European Union Prize for Women Innovators, Second Prize (2014), the American Association of Community Colleges Outstanding Speaker Award (2012), the Netherlands Cancer Institute Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Outstanding Science Award (2010), the Indiana University School of Medicine inaugural Harry and Edith Gladstein Award (2009), the European Society for Medical Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award for Translational Research in Breast Cancer (2007), the European Breast Cancer Conference European Breast Cancer Science Award (2006), and the International Agency for Research on Cancer Medal of Honor (2005).

“Dr. van ’t Veer fully epitomizes the spirit and legacy of this award in honor of Dr. McGuire, starting from basic science discovery to translational and clinical research to standard of care for the benefit of patients worldwide,” said SABCS Co-director Carlos Arteaga, MD, FAACR, director of the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate dean of oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a past president of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Van ’t Veer received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Amsterdam, her PhD at Leiden University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cancer Center of Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, Boston. Van ’t Veer’s award lecture will be held Wednesday, December 11.