John Mendelsohn, president of The University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, has been selected to receive the 27th annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Freedom to Discover Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research.
He was recognized for his long-time leadership role in cancer education, research and treatment and for his pivotal discoveries on inhibiting cancer cell growth. He was the first to conceptualize that therapeutic agents could block the activation of specific receptors on the surface of cells that control cancer cell proliferation and function, leading to the development of targeted cancer therapies. Dr. Mendelsohn was selected by an independent panel of his peers, in a process in which Bristol-Myers Squibb takes no active role.
For the past three decades, Dr. Mendelsohn has focused on the mechanisms that control the abnormal proliferation of cancer cells. Knowing that certain growth factors and their specific receptors on the cell membrane are key in cancer cell proliferation, he and his colleague Gordon Sato, M.D., developed a series of monoclonal antibodies, including monoclonal antibody 225, that specifically bind to and inhibit the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In the mid-1980s, Dr. Mendelsohn demonstrated that an antibody targeting the EGFR on the surface of a cell could inhibit the growth of a variety of cancer cells, both in culture and in nude mouse xenografts. Since then, his laboratory has continued to focus on the mechanisms of the anti-tumor activity of monoclonal antibody 225, including its ability to block the cell cycle by inhibiting p27KIP1, to inhibit blood vessel formation and to promote apoptosis.
These efforts have contributed to the development of new therapies for cancer patients that target EGFR and other receptors, with the potential to enhance the lives of many patients. A modified, chimeric human-mouse monoclonal antibody (C225), called cetuximab, was derived from monoclonal antibody 225. Cetuximab, now known as Erbitux, received marketing approval on February 12, 2004, from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in combination with irinotecan in the treatment of patients with EGFR-expressing, metastatic colorectal cancer who are refractory to irinotecan-based chemotherapy, and for use as a single agent in the treatment of patients with EGFR-expressing, metastatic colorectal cancer who are intolerant to irinotecan-based chemotherapy. It is being jointly developed by ImClone Systems Incorporated and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
"Dr. Mendelsohn's breakthrough efforts led to a fundamental shift in thinking about controlling cancer cell proliferation and to the possibility of creating new and more targeted cancer therapies. His pivotal discovery about the consequences of blocking the function of receptors on the surface of cancer cells also opened up a number of therapeutic possibilities that only recently have begun to make an impact in extending the lives of many cancer patients," said Robert A. Kramer, Ph.D., vice president, Discovery Biology, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. "This award is given in recognition of a lifelong career that has focused on taking brilliant research conducted in the laboratory and translating those efforts in the clinic and into therapies that can advance the fight against human cancer."