Professor Carlos Caldas has been awarded the Hamilton Fairley Award by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in recognition of his ground-breaking research, which has opened up new horizons for our understanding of the biology of breast cancer.
Professor Caldas’ research focus is the functional genomics of breast cancer and its biological and clinical implications. His laboratory has redefined the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer, revealing novel subtypes and their respective drivers. His team has also completed microRNA (miRNA) profiling of 1,300 of the same tumours, which uncovered a new role for miRNAs as modulators of the immune response in a subset of breast cancers.
His group co-led seminal studies defining the clonal heterogeneity of triple negative breast cancers and the patterns of whole-genome oestrogen receptor binding in primary tumours, which revealed new biology.
Professor Caldas' group also co-led studies that established circulating tumour DNA as a monitoring biomarker and a liquid biopsy to unravel therapy resistance. More recently, the Caldas’ laboratory has been developing the use of patient-derived tumour explants as a model system for breast cancer.
He has been Professor of Cancer Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK, since 2002. He is currently Head of the Breast Cancer Functional Genomics Laboratory at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Honorary Consultant Medical Oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Lead of the Cambridge Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre, and Director of the Breast Cancer Programme at the Cambridge Cancer Centre.
Carlos said: “I feel extremely honoured and humbled with receiving this award in particular, as a Portuguese physician-scientist based in the UK. I would like to acknowledge all current and past members of my group as well as my colleagues at the Cambridge Cancer Centre and at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.”
He will be presented with the Award and give a lecture at the opening of the ESMO 2016 Congress in Copenhagen on Friday 7 October.
