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NYU School of Medicine Expert To Be Honored at
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting

Harvey Pass, M.D., Among Team of Investigators to Receive the Inaugural Landon Foundation-AACR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research

New York, NY – April 10, 2008 - Harvey Pass, M.D., Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Surgery, and the Division Chief for Thoracic Surgery and Thoracic Oncology for the NYU School of Medicine is a recipient of the inaugural Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research.

The award supports highly meritorious research being conducted collaboratively by investigators around the world. Dr. Pass and his colleagues—experts in genetics, thoracic oncology, geology, and pathology working in the United States and Turkey—will use the award to fund their investigation into the high rates of mesothelioma in three Turkish villages.

Reinforcing its commitment to supporting cancer research, the Kirk A. and Dorothy P. Landon Foundation has again partnered with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to create this new funding opportunity. The Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research offers a two-year $100,000 grant to support promising cancer prevention research through international collaboration.

The multi-disciplinary team of international collaborators has discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages and has demonstrated that it is caused by a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis, a gene-environment interaction. Mesothelioma is a form of cancer where malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. They have identified exposure to erionite as the likely cause of the epidemic and have reduced exposure to that mineral fiber throughout the villages. They will apply the AACR INNOVATOR grant to their study of linkage analysis to identify the predisposing gene or genes for mesothelioma among this cultural group and map the genetic risk factors by genetic linkage studies. Findings from this research have implications far beyond the villages in Turkey as they can be applied to other geographic areas and communities worldwide with the goal of preventing this deadly cancer or finding new treatments and therapies for it.

“Cardiothoracic Surgery at NYU is proud to be associated with this team of investigators who are trying to find why these villagers develop mesothelioma at epidemic rates,” says Harvey Pass, M.D. “By concentrating on this Turkish cohort, we hope to find mechanisms for increased susceptibility to the disease as well as to discover and evaluate new biomarkers, which will hopefully be useful to all individuals at risk for mesothelioma. This AACR award specifically will supply funds necessary to visit the villages and eventually perform prospective trials to validate mesothelioma markers which are presently under intense scrutiny in our lab at NYU.”

Led by Michele Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Hawaii, the team also includes: Haining Yang, Ph.D., University of Hawaii; Nancy Cox, Ph.D., and Ian Steele, Ph.D., University of Chicago; Harvey Pass, M.D., NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Cancer Institute; Joseph Testa, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center; Y. Izzetin Baris, M.D., University of Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey; A. Umran Dogan, Ph.D., University of Iowa; and Salih Emri, M.D. and Murat Tuncer, M.D., Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.

Dr. Pass and the other investigators will receive their awards during the Opening Ceremony of the AACR Annual Meeting on Sunday, April 13, 2008, in San Diego.

About the NYU Cancer Institute
The mission of the NYU Cancer Institute is to decrease and eliminate cancer as a significant health problem throughout New York, the nation, and the world, by developing and maintaining excellent programs in patient care, research, education, and prevention.

About NYU Medical Center
One of the world’s premier academic medical institutions for more than 155 years, NYU Medical Center continues to be a leader in patient care, physician education and scientific research. NYU Medical Center is internationally renowned for excellence in areas such as cardiovascular disease, pediatrics, skin care, neurosurgery, urology, cancer care, rehabilitation, plastic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, transplant surgery, infertility, women’s health and day surgery.

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