Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology and Donna S. Hall Professor of Breast Cancer Research at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), assumed the presidency of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for 2014-2015 during the group’s annual meeting last week in San Diego.
The AACR, founded in 1907, is the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and the prevention and cure of cancer. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers, along with population scientists, other health care professionals and cancer advocates in 97 countries.
Arteaga, who joined the Vanderbilt University faculty in 1989, is director of the Center for Cancer Targeted Therapies (CCTT) at VICC, the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Research Network (VICCRN) and the Breast Cancer Program, and serves as associate director for clinical research at VICC.
Since 2001, he has been the leader of the Vanderbilt Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in breast cancer, which recently received a third round of funding from the National Cancer Institute.
“I am extremely honored to be able to serve as president of the AACR,” said Arteaga. “This is a time when the pace of discovery and progress in cancer research has never been better. Thus, I commit to work tirelessly with the AACR so the organization continues to be a main force and custodian of progress and discovery for the benefit of many patients afflicted with cancer.”
Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and director of VICC, said Arteaga is one of the most respected breast cancer investigators in the world.
“He has made some of the seminal discoveries in breast cancer research and translated them to the clinic.
“We are fortunate to have him on our VICC leadership team and are proud that he has been selected by his peers for this crucial leadership role in such a prestigious cancer organization,” Pietenpol said.
Arteaga is internationally recognized for his cancer research, including oncogene signaling and molecular therapeutics in breast cancer with an emphasis on targeted therapies, mechanisms of drug resistance and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
Early in his career, he was the first to identify the roles of IGF-I receptors and TGF beta in breast cancer progression and their use as therapeutic targets.
More recently, Arteaga and his team have focused on presurgical and neoadjuvant therapies to discover molecular biomarkers that are useful for patient selection in clinical trials.
Arteaga has been active as a leader with AACR for more than a decade.
He has served as a member of the Board of Directors, chair of the AACR Special Conferences Committee, member and chair for several special meetings and an editorial board member of the AACR journals, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics and Clinical Cancer Research.
He has served as co-chair of the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium since 2009 and is a principal investigator with the Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team, Targeting the PI3K Pathways in Women’s Cancers.
During his career, Arteaga has received numerous awards, including the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award; the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor Award; the Gianni Bonadonna Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology; the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction from Susan G. Komen; and the Clinical Investigator Award from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
In 2013, he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.
Additionally, he is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians and member of the Susan G. Komen Scientific Advisory Board.
