Boston, MA--Weston resident Karen H. Antman, MD, provost of Boston University Medical Campus and dean of Boston University School of Medicine, will be honored with the Distinguished Service Award for Scientific Leadership by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) at their annual meeting in Chicago this weekend. Antman, an internationally renowned expert in the field of breast cancer, is widely recognized for her development of a standard treatment regimen for sarcoma.
Each year through the Special Awards Program, ASCO identifies those individuals whose personal commitment to furthering the progress against cancer has led to tremendous advances in the field. Research scientists and others dedicated to improving the lives of people living with cancer are nominated to receive ASCO’s highest, most prestigious awards. The collective efforts of this year’s recipients are credited with important strides in bettering the care of children and older adults with cancer in addition to impacting cancer prevention and developing new treatment modalities.
“It is our honor to bestow upon Dr. Antman ASCO’s highest award of achievement,” said Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, ASCO Past President and Chair of the Special Awards Committee.
Antman assumed the positions of Provost of the Medical Campus and Dean of Boston University School of Medicine on May 1, 2005. She came to Boston University from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she served as Deputy Director for Translational and Clinical sciences in 2004 and 2005. Previously, she spent more than 10 years on the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was Wu Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center.
Antman was voted Senior Faculty Teacher of the Year by medical residents at Columbia in 1993. She also served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1979 to 1993, and had hospital appointments at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
She has written extensively about impediments to clinical research on cancer, and she has testified before Congress on the need for federal research dollars to support cancer research with articles in the medical literature. She has written more than 300 journal papers and edited five textbooks and monographs, many with multiple editions.
Antman has served as President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She served for seven years as an associate editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and currently serves on the international editorial board of the Lancet and several other major medical journals. She currently sits on the Council of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center.
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. With more than 25,000 members, ASCO is committed to improving cancer care through scientific meetings, educational programs and peer-reviewed journals. For ASCO information and resources, visit www.asco.org/presscenter. Patient-oriented cancer information is available at www.cancer.net .