Douglas Hanahan was Honored with the 2025 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Cancer Research

Douglas Hanahan, PhD, FAACR, has been selected to receive the 2025 Pezcoller Foundation–AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research.

The Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research, established in 1997, honors scientists who have made significant contributions to basic or translational cancer research. Recipients must be actively engaged in cancer research, have a history of impactful publications, and be involved in ongoing work with the potential for continued meaningful contributions to advancing cancer research.

The award will be presented during the AACR Annual Meeting 2025, taking place from April 25-30 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), CEO of the AACR, shared,

“Dr. Hanahan is an extraordinary scientist whose innovative and multidisciplinary work has led to numerous fundamental discoveries in cancer research. His remarkable research has significantly advanced cancer biology and has benefited all patients.”

Enzo Galligioni, MD, president of the Pezcoller Foundation, also made remarks on Hanahan receiving the award:

“We are thrilled to recognize Dr. Hanahan for his groundbreaking discoveries, which have influenced cancer research over the past 25 years.”

Douglas Hanahan is a Distinguished Scholar at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Zurich/New York), based at its Lausanne Branch. He is also an Emeritus Professor of Molecular Oncology and former Director of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). Additionally, Hanahan was a founding co-director of the Swiss Cancer Center Leman (SCCL), Switzerland’s first ‘comprehensive/integrated’ cancer center. He played a key role in conceptualizing and guiding the development of the Agora Translational Cancer Research Center, which serves as the flagship of SCCL.

Hanahan is a pioneering scientist whose work has reshaped the understanding of cancer biology. His early research revealed that oncogene expression alone isn’t enough to drive tumor formation, highlighting the need for additional factors like resistance to cell death, angiogenesis, and immune evasion. Hanahan also played a major role in demonstrating that inflammation can promote cancer and studied the involvement of tumor-infiltrating immune cells, fibroblasts, and other components in tumor progression.

Notably, Hanahan, alongside Robert Weinberg, introduced the influential “Hallmarks of Cancer” in their groundbreaking 2000 paper, which identified the critical biological traits that enable cancer cells to thrive and proliferate. This transformative concept, updated in 2011 and 2022, has become a cornerstone of cancer research, offering a dynamic framework that continues to illuminate the intricate biology of cancer and its progression.

Douglas Hanahan; Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions. Cancer Discov 1 January 2022; 12 (1): 31–46. doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1059

In collaboration with Judah Folkman, MD, Hanahan co-discovered the “angiogenic switch,” a crucial process in tumor growth that has led to vital therapeutic insights targeting angiogenesis. His recent work has focused on cancer-related neuroscience, particularly the role of neuronal signaling pathways in cancer metastasis and immune evasion.

Hanahan has been a member of the AACR since 2000 and was elected as a Fellow of the AACR Academy in 2014. His many honors include the AACR Lifetime Achievement Award (2014) and election to prestigious organizations like the Royal Society (2023), the National Academy of Sciences (2009), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).

Hanahan earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976 and went on to receive a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University in 1983, where he was honored with a distinguished fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows

The date, time, and title of his award lecture will be announced before the AACR Annual Meeting 2025.

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