The thirteenth annual Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine is jointly awarded to Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and S.P. Hicks Endowed Professor of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School, and Charles L. Sawyers, MD, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Chair in Human Oncology and Pathogenesis at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The award recognizes their transformative discoveries that defined the molecular drivers of prostate cancer and pioneered precision therapies that have reshaped the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer worldwide.
Drs. Chinnaiyan and Sawyers have together identified genetic changes that drive prostate cancer and pioneered breakthrough precision therapies. Dr. Chinnaiyan identified an abnormal gene fusion, TMPRSS2-ERG, that is the most common genetic driver of prostate cancer and is a foundational biomarker for prostate cancer diagnostics. Dr. Sawyers developed advanced androgen receptor inhibitors, enzalutamide and apalutamide, FDA-approved in 2012 and 2018, respectively. These drugs are a mainstay of prostate cancer treatment. (Earlier work by Dr. Sawyers brought to clinical practice the drug imatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that revolutionized treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia.)
Drs. Chinnaiyan and Sawyers also co-led a team that discovered high rates of mutations in advanced prostate cancers that make them susceptible to a class of drugs called PARP inhibitors, such as olaparib. Today these drugs are a standard treatment for prostate cancer.
Dr. Sawyers was elected to the ASCI in 1999 and served as the ASCI’s 2007–2008 President. He is presenting the lecture on behalf of both recipients.