Columbia Cancer Scientists Win Young Investigator Award for Prostate Cancer Research
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), a leading funder of prostate cancer research, has awarded Juan Arriaga, PhD, and Jessica Hawley, MD, with a 2020 Young Investigator Award (YIA).
Dr. Arriaga, associate research scientist in Columbia University's Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, is recognized for his work in prostate cancer bone metastasis and treatment-resistant tumors. Dr. Hawley, assistant professor of medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons who specializes in genitourinary oncology, is being awarded for her work in advancing blood-based biomarker research for men with prostate cancer, with an emphasis on immune biomarkers.
The PCF YIA award is an annual recognition given to a select group of rising stars in oncology. This year, Drs. Arriaga and Hawley join a class of 20 awardees, selected out of 150 applications. The awards were inspired by the late Donald S. Coffey, PhD, a longtime director of prostate cancer research at Johns Hopkins University who was dedicated to mentoring physician-scientists and trainees in the field.
PCF will be funding Dr. Arriaga’s proposal to perform preclinical studies to identify previously unrecognized therapeutic vulnerabilities of prostate cancer bone metastasis and treatment-resistant tumors. These studies may ultimately result in novel treatments that can potentially improve survival and reduce morbidity of this lethal disease; metastatic prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and represents significant morbidity to patients due to bone metastasis and side effects of treatment.
Says Dr. Arriaga, “This award is a stepping stone to launching my own independent career into leveraging basic studies of prostate cancer progression into potential new therapeutic strategies.”
The YIA award will support Dr. Hawley’s study to determine whether serum cytokines and anti-tumor antibodies have the potential to serve as biomarkers for treatment selection in men with prostate cancer. Her project also aims to reduce health disparities by specifically studying Black male patients.
“Clinical data presented over the last few years showed that Black men have improved outcomes with certain treatments, including the only approved immunotherapy in prostate cancer, sipuleucel-t,” Dr. Hawley says. “My research aims to determine if circulating markers of anti-tumor immunity can shed light on whether there are differential immune responses to treatment. Similarly, I will be looking at blood-based biomarkers from a large Phase 3 trial previously conducted to determine if circulating cytokines are predictive of treatment response in men with early-stage prostate cancer.”
At Columbia, Dr. Hawley’s research aims to advance prostate cancer care through novel immunotherapy strategies. Her interest in cancer health disparities research and working with and on behalf of patients who have limited access to adequate treatment or healthcare is an often key component in her work.
“This award means a lot because it affirms that the research I've planned is potentially meaningful,” says Dr. Hawley, “and it also provides peer-reviewed, external validation that the Prostate Cancer Foundation believes in me and my research.”