AACR Elects Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., as President-elect 2013-2014

PHILADELPHIA — The members of the American Association for Cancer Research have elected Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., as their president-elect for 2013-2014. Arteaga is a professor of medicine and cancer biology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine where he holds the Donna S. Hall chair in breast cancer research. He also serves as associate director for clinical research and director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn.

In his new role, Arteaga will work collaboratively with the AACR Board of Directors and the 34,000-plus membership to further the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure cancer through research, education, communication and collaboration. He will officially become president-elect on Tuesday, April 9, at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013, held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10, and will assume the presidency in April 2014.  

“I am very grateful to the AACR and its members for this honor and opportunity,” said Arteaga. “I look forward to working with the association and meaningfully contributing to its leadership role and progress in the fight against cancer in these difficult but also exciting times.”

“Dr. Arteaga’s contributions to breast cancer research have had a major impact on the lives of breast cancer patients,” said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), chief executive officer of the AACR. “We are thrilled that an esteemed expert in translational and clinical research has been elected to serve as the next AACR president-elect. Dr. Arteaga shares in the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure cancer, and we know that he will lead the association with much vigor and commitment to ensure that we continue to accelerate progress against this insidious disease.”

Arteaga’s involvement in the AACR spans more than a decade. He was a member of the Board of Directors (2004-2007); chair of the AACR Special Conferences Committee (2002-2008); member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee in 2012 and 2013; co-chairperson of the “Molecularly Targeted Therapies: Mechanisms of Resistance” special conference in 2012; member of the Clinical and Translational Cancer Research Grants Scientific Review Committee in 2012; member of the AACR Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research Selection Committee in 2011; co-chairperson of the AACR-Japanese Cancer Association joint conference; co-chair of the AACR special conference “Advances in Breast Cancer Research” in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2013; and an editorial board member of the AACR’s journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, from 2002 to 2012.

Arteaga was also an editorial board member of Clinical Cancer Research from 2001 to 2004 and is currently deputy editor. He has served on behalf of the AACR as co-chair of the annual CTRC–AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium since 2009 and is a principal investigator on the Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team, “Targeting the PI3K Pathways in Women’s Cancers.”

His research interests include oncogene signaling and molecular therapeutics in breast cancer with an emphasis on targeted therapies, mechanisms of drug resistance, translational research and investigator-initiated clinical trials. Early in his career, Arteaga was the first to report the role of IGF-I receptors and TGF beta on breast cancer progression and their potential as therapeutic targets. More recent work has focused on the role of presurgical and neoadjuvant trials to discover molecular biomarkers that inform patient selection in clinical trials and/or for the discovery of mechanisms of drug resistance in breast cancer. He showed the role of aberrant activation of the PI3K pathway in promoting escape from antiestrogens and the ability of inhibitors of HER2 and PI3K to reverse resistance to antiestrogen therapy in human breast cancer in studies focused on hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. All of his work has significant implications for novel clinical trials in patients with breast cancer, some of which are completed or in progress.

He has received many honors and 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 the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation and, early in his career, the Clinical Investigator Award from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Additionally, he is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation and a member of Susan G. Komen’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Arteaga received his medical degree in 1980 from the Facultad de Ciencias Médicas at the Universidad de Guayaquil in Ecuador. Following internal medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., Arteaga completed a fellowship in medical oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1989.

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About the American Association for Cancer Research
Founded in 1907, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world’s first and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure cancer. AACR membership includes more than 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 20 conferences and educational workshops, the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting with more than 17,000 attendees. In addition, the AACR publishes eight peer-reviewed scientific journals and a magazine for cancer survivors, patients and their caregivers. The AACR funds meritorious research directly as well as in cooperation with numerous cancer organizations. As the scientific partner of Stand Up To Cancer, the AACR provides expert peer review, grants administration and scientific oversight of team science and individual grants in cancer research that have the potential for near-term patient benefit. The AACR actively communicates with legislators and policymakers about the value of cancer research and related biomedical science in saving lives from cancer. For more information about the AACR, visit www.AACR.org.

Media Contact:
Lauren Riley
(215) 446-7155
Lauren.Riley@aacr.org
In Washington, D.C.:
April 6-10, 2013
(202) 249-4005

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