Calling his work "one of the most important findings in breast cancer and health disparities in the last decade," the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has named Charles M. Perou, Ph.D. the 2009 Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer Research, funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure-.
Perou, who is an associate professor of genetics, pathology & laboratory medicine, and a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, will present an invited lecture this week at the 32nd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and receive an honorarium.
Perou's work sets the stage to redefine breast cancer into multiple subtypes of disease. His findings are causing the entire field to reevaluate all preconceived notions regarding what causes breast cancer and how to treat it. Recognition of his accomplishments by AACR and Komen demonstrate the power of his ideas and their rapid acceptance by the scientific and clinical communities.
Perou's research crosses the disciplines of biology, genetics, bioinformatics, epidemiology and the clinical treatment of breast cancer. His major contribution to the field has been leading a team that has characterized the diversity of breast tumors and classified them in a way that helps physicians better understand why some cancers do not respond to standard therapies and to tailor treatment to the patient's disease type.
He and his colleagues have demonstrated that breast tumors can be classified into five molecular subtypes, with his lab focusing particular attention on the basal-like tumor subtype, which has a poor prognosis when given standard therapy. He is also currently studying the mechanisms that give rise to each tumor subtype, why some subtypes respond to chemotherapy and others do not, and he is using animal models and human clinical trials samples to develop new therapies targeted to each of the different subtypes.