American Association for Cancer Research Inaugurates New Leadership at 2014 Annual Meeting

SAN DIEGO — The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) welcomes Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., as president of the organization for 2014-2015. He was inaugurated during the Annual Business Meeting, held here during the AACR Annual Meeting 2014.

Arteaga is 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 serves as associate director for translational/clinical research; director of the Breast Cancer Program; director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Research Network (VICCRN); and director of Center for Cancer Targeted Therapies at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn.

“I am extremely honored to be able to serve as president of the AACR, the largest cancer research organization in the world,” Arteaga said. “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.”

Arteaga’s 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, he was the first to report the roles of IGF-I receptors and TGF beta in breast cancer progression and their use 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. In studies focused on hormone receptor-positive 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. Since 2001, he has led the NCI-funded Vanderbilt Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in breast cancer. His work has significant implications for novel clinical trials in patients with breast cancer.

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); chair of the AACR/NCI/EORTC Molecular Targets meeting in 2001; member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee in 2012 and 2013; co-chair 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-chair 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 an AACR journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, from 2002 to 2012.

Arteaga was also an editorial board member for the AACR’s Clinical Cancer Research from 2001 to 2004 and deputy editor from 2004 to 2013. He has served as AACR co-chair of the annual 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.

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 Susan G. Komen; and, early in his career, the Clinical Investigator Award from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. In 2013, he was elected as 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 Susan G. Komen 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., he completed a fellowship in medical oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Arteaga joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1989.

Additionally, José Baselga, M.D., Ph.D., physician-in-chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was inducted as president-elect and Charles L. Sawyers, M.D., chair of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, now serves as past-president.

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