Druker received his M.D. in 1981 from the University of California in San Diego. At Harvard Medical School he specialized in cancer research. Since 1993, Druker leads leukemia research at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute in Portland (USA). He is Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and JELDWEN Chair of Leukemia Research. On the 27th of October he will accept the Braunschweig prize at the congress "Life in Tomorrow's World."
The American cancer researcher Prof. Dr. Brian Druker will be recognised for his research into molecular cancer ther-apy with the 50,000 Euro Braunschweig Prize, the highest research prize from a German city.
The 48-year-old medic is regarded as the pathfinder of the first tailor-made pill for the treatment of cancer. Ten years ago, in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company No-vartis, he identified the compound Imatinib, which in the meantime has become commercially available as Glivec. In contrast to chemotherapy that attacks both healthy and diseased cells, Imatinib targets a single protein that trig-gers the uncontrolled growth of white blood cells in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Every year approximately 1700 people in Germany fall ill with this blood cancer.
A recent study involving 1006 patients, comparing Glivec to standard therapy for CML, led by Druker, had to be stopped early because Glivec was so superior to the con-ventional therapy (New England Journal of Medicine, Vol-ume 348, P. 994). In three quarters of the Glivec-treated patients, the majority of leukemia cells disappear and side effects of therapy have been minimal.
A rare form of intestinal cancer (gastrointestinal stroma tu-mour) has also already been successfully treated with Glivec.
"The name Brian Druker has become synonymous with a breakthrough in cancer therapy," said Braunschweig's mayor, Dr. Gert Hoffmann, after the decision of the city council on the 8th of July. Druker's research will inspire the long-cherished hope of destroying cancer at the molecular root. Druker has been chosen by a top-class jury from approximately 50 qualified applications from all over the world. Members of the jury under the chairmanship of Dr. Hoffman include the science minister from lower Saxony, Lutz Stratmann, the president of the German research council, Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, the chairman of the board of directors of SAP plc, Prof. Dr. Henning Kagermann as well as the science journalist, Ranga Yo-geshwar.
Brian Druker leads leukemia research at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute in Portland. On October the 27th he will accept the Braunschweig Prize at the congress "Life in Tomorrow's World" in Braunschweig. Some of the first patients to be treated with Glivec in Germany came from Braunschweig, among them Fred Ritter, the last singer of the comedian quartet that was started from the comedian harmonists. "At the moment I'm quite well," said Ritter who has to take three Glivec capsules every morning. He definitely wants to attend the prize ceremony to congratulate Brian Druker.