Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research Awarded to Harold F. Dvorak, M.D.

BETHESDA, Md. -- The National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) announced that Harold F. Dvorak, M.D., Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Department of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has been awarded the inaugural Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research.

Dr. Dvorak was selected based on his breakthrough discovery of vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VPF/VEGF) and that contribution that has led to a series of discoveries which both elucidated the mechanisms of angiogenesis as well as the development of antibodies and small molecule therapies to inhibit VEGF.

"Without Dr. Dvorak's fundamental discovery we would probably not have had the therapeutic agent bevacizumab which has had a tremendous impact on improving survival for patients with advanced colorectal cancer, breast cancer, non-cell lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma", stated Chairman of the Szent-Gyorgyi Prize Committee Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, Vice President of the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. "In addition, other small molecules which inhibit VEGF have also shown outstanding clinical antitumor activity with dramatic therapeutic effects for patients worldwide."

"Dr. Dvorak's seminal discoveries in basic science have led to significant clinical benefits for cancer patients, perfectly fitting the unique criteria of the Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research," said Sujuan Ba, Ph.D., NFCR Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Chair of the Szent-Gyorgyi Prize Committee.

Published in 1983 in the journal Science, Harold Dvorak, M.D. and his colleagues were the first to show that tumor cells secreted VPF and that a blocking antibody to VPF could prevent the devastating edema and fluid accumulation characteristic of ovarian, breast, and many other human cancers. This discovery laid the foundation and also provided the molecular basis for the entire angiogenesis field and what is now one of modern medicines most promising anti-cancer hopes. In 1986, Dr. Dvorak went on to demonstrate in the journal Cancer Research that VPF was secreted by a variety of human tumor cell lines and proposed that VPF was in part responsible for the abnormal vasculature seen in human tumors. As a result, he and other investigators demonstrated that VPF was capable of stimulating endothelial cell growth and angiogenesis.

In another 1986 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine Dvorak proposed that by secreting VPF tumors induce angiogenesis by turning on the wound healing response. He noted that wounds, like tumors, secrete VPF, causing blood vessels to leak plasma fibrinogen which stimulates blood vessel growth and provides a matrix on which they can spread. Unlike wounds however that turn off VPF production after healing, tumors did not turn off their VPF production and instead continued to make large amounts of VPF, allowing malignant cells to continue to induce new blood vessels and so to grow and spread. Thus, tumors behave as wounds that fail to heal.

Harold F. Dvorak, M.D. stepped down as Chair of Pathology at Beth Israel in July after 26 years to devote his life to basic science cancer research; he is emeritus Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He has served on the Harvard Medical School faculty since 1967 and at Beth Israel since 1979 and has written over 220 original journal reports.

The Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research was established by the National Foundation for Cancer Research in honor of its co-founder, Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, recipient of the 1937 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his study on Vitamin C and cell respiration. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi was a leading advocate for developing resources to provide scientists with the financial support necessary to pursue innovative cancer research. The annual prize carries a $25,000 cash prize and was established to honor outstanding scientific achievement in the war against cancer and celebrate leading researchers who have made extraordinary contributions in the field of cancer research.

Any scientist or individual may be nominated for the annual prize by his or her peers and the winner is selected by a prize committee of academic, scientific, business and non-profit leaders highly qualified to review and select the Prize winner.

About the National Foundation for Cancer Research

Since its founding, the NFCR has spent more than $230 million funding basic science cancer research and prevention education focused on understanding how and why cells become cancerous. NFCR is dedicated to funding scientists who are discovering cancer's molecular mysteries and translating these discoveries into therapies that hold the hope for curing cancer. For more information, visit http://www.NFCR.org or (800) 321-CURE.