This year’s Sjöberg Prize of one million US dollars is awarded to a British cancer researcher who has provided fundamental knowledge about evolution in tumours. Charles Swanton, at the Francis Crick Institute in London, has described how tumours’ mutations arise and develop. His discoveries could help explain why treatments do not always work, as well as leading the way to more accurate diagnostics.
It has long been known that cancer starts when a cell mutates and begins dividing aggressively, but researchers have not known the details of what happens inside the tumour and what the mutations look like.
This is where Charles Swanton comes into the picture. Like his namesake, Charles Darwin, he has tackled evolution and considered how tumours change with the various mutations that arise.
“He started with a fairly simple experiment, where he divided a kidney tumour into pieces and then analysed each one. He saw that they were all different, so there must have been a process that led to mutations that only exist in specific parts of the tumour,” explains Urban Lendahl, secretary of the Sjöberg Prize Committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
This may explain why some treatments fail to completely eradicate a cancer. However, to investigate these connections in more depth, Swanton needed to follow many patients over a long period of time. This was done as part of a major British research project, TRACERx, initiated by him.
“A great number of researchers followed hundreds of cancer patients for many years. Swanton’s focus was lung cancer, and the project allowed him to study tumours from the initial diagnosis all the way through treatment and any relapses,” says Lendahl.
The genetic landscape of a tumour can be likened to a family tree. The mutations that occur early in development are in the tree’s trunk; these are lasting and are found in all the tumour’s cells. Over time, other mutations occur; these are in the tree’s branches. Cancer treatment usually only removes some of the branches, while others unfortunately survive. This means the entire tumour is not eliminated.
Lendahl describes Swanton’s discoveries as a treasure trove, which can be explored by other researchers who want to improve cancer treatment and diagnostics. He has also developed a blood test that can, at an early stage, identify cancer patients who are starting to relapse.
Charles Swanton was very surprised to learn that he had been awarded the Sjöberg Prize and delighted about the size of the research grant it includes. One thing he would like to investigate in the future is how the first cancer cell begins its journey, which researchers still know very little about.
“I hope this prize money is going to allow us to really understand how that very first step in tumour initiation and evolution occurs. If we can understand that process, I hope we can intercept it and prevent it from happening and therefore prevent cancers from emerging,” he says.
FACTS Citation
“for discoveries concerning clonal evolution of cancer cells and its importance for tumour growth and metastasis.”
FACTS The laureate
Charles Swanton is Deputy Clinical Director at the Francis Crick Institute, London, UK and Chief Clinician at Cancer Research UK. He completed his PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in 1998 and his medical specialty training in 2008. He then joined the Royal Marsden Hospital as a consultant, became a professor of cancer medicine at UCL Hospitals in 2011 and a principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in 2016. He was born in 1972 in Poole, Dorset, UK.
Charles Swanton, Francis Crick Institute
A photo of the laureate can be found at kva.se
A video describing the research behind the prize and containing a short interview with the laureate can be embedded from the Royal Swedish Academy's Youtube channel
FACTS The Sjöberg Prize
The prize is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Sjöberg Foundation, which also provides the funding. The prize was established using a donation from businessman Bengt Sjöberg, who died from complications due to cancer in 2017. It is to be awarded to a person or persons who have made decisive contributions to cancer research. It amounts to 100,000 US dollars as a personal prize and 900,000 US dollars as funding for continued research. The Sjöberg Prize 2025 will be presented at the Academy’s Annual meeting on 31 March. The prize lecture will be held at Uppsala Comprehensive Cancer Centre (UCCC) on the 30 March.