Pierre Massion, M.D.
Lung research lands support
Pierre Massion, M.D., has been awarded $450,000 from The ASCO Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) to continue his lung cancer research.
Massion, assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, was awarded the 2007 Advanced Clinical Research Award (ACRA) in recognition of his commitment to advancing progress against lung cancer and improving the treatment of people living with the disease. His research project will evaluate a new approach to the early detection of lung cancer.
“A promising approach for the discovery of diagnostic cancer biomarkers is the identification of panels of tumor antigens that elicit an antibody response. The goal we are pursuing with Dr. Tetyana Pedchenko and Dr. Ray Mernaugh is to identify novel diagnostic biomarkers of lung cancer with a novel strategy that uses an antibody library to capture specific markers of lung cancers,” said Massion.
The ACRA awards are presented to physicians who have between five and 10 years of experience and are full-time faculty members in a clinical setting at an academic medical center. Each winner will receive a three-year award totaling $450,000.
Lung cancer affects approximately 170,000 Americans each year. Although lung cancer incidence and mortality have begun declining in recent years due to a decrease in smoking rates, it remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States and more research is needed to find new and better ways to treat, diagnose and prevent the disease.
“These awards will aid the discovery of important advances for one of the country's deadliest cancers by providing financial support for promising lung cancer research,” said Allen Lichter, M.D., CEO of The ASCO Foundation. “The ASCO Foundation is committed to supporting physicians by encouraging and funding their research initiatives.”
The awards will be presented during ASCO's 2007 Annual Meeting in Chicago and are supported by Genentech BioOncology. Eric Haura, M.D., from H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, also received the award.