French oncologist Laurence Zitvogel has spent thirty years studying the relationship between the immune system and the success of cancer treatments. Among other things, she discovered that the gut microbiome influences the efficacy of anticancer therapy. She is receiving this year’s Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award for her pioneering research and passionate commitment to improving the quality of treatment and care for cancer patients.
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Laurence Zitvogel discovered that the gut microbiome plays an especially important role in the efficacy of both chemotherapy and immunotherapy in combatting various types of tumours. Her research also revealed that antibiotics administered before or during treatment may worsen the efficacy of immunotherapy. Thanks in part to her findings regarding the key role of the immune system in anticancer therapy efficacy, future treatments can be better adapted to the individual patient. In addition, it may be possible to improve the immune system so that it is better able to fight tumours on its own, for example by administering certain microbiota. Her many decades of inspired work in cancer research combined with immunology and the associated improvements in clinical care for patients have led the jury, chaired by Pancras Hogendoorn (Academy member and professor of pathology at Leiden University Medical Center), to deem Laurence Zitvogel a worthy laureate of the Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award.
About Laurence Zitvogel
Laurence Zitvogel (Suresnes, France, 1963) is full professor of Immunology Biology at the Université Paris-Saclay, France and scientific director of the Clinicobiome programme at Gustave Roussy in the Paris suburb of Villejuif. The aim of this medical research programme is to examine how microbiota influence the efficacy of cancer therapies.
Laurence Zitvogel has devoted herself to research at the interface of oncology, immunology and immunotherapy since the early 1990s at the University of Pittsburgh, US and then at Gustave Roussy, France.
She is an impassioned scientist who combines her dedication to research with a commitment to patient care and who also supervises a great many students and postdoctoral researchers. She has authored or co-authored more than five hundred publications and is one of the most cited researchers in her field. She has received various awards for her work and has been nominated as an Officer in the French L’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur and at the French Academy of Medicine. She is also involved in integrating basic and clinical research groups and regularly organises local and international meetings bringing together researchers in her field from across the EU and beyond.
About the award
The Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award is a biennial award intended for a researcher (or team of researchers) whose contribution to (translational) cancer research and compassionate cancer patient care is regarded as outstanding. The award is made possible by the Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award Foundation and is named after the Dutch cancer researcher and founder of the VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam, Bob Pinedo (Curaçao, 1943). The Academy is responsible for the process of nomination and selecting the prize-winner or winners. The award consists of a bronze sculpture in the form of Professor Pinedo’s hand, symbolising both strength and hope of healing, and a monetary prize of € 100,000.
Award ceremony
The award will be presented on 29 November 2022 at the Trippenhuis Building, seat of the Academy, in Amsterdam.
Note for editors
If you have any questions, please contact Esther Ladiges, Academy Communications Department, at esther.ladiges@knaw.nl or +31 (0)6 1541 9493.
Award ceremony
- Webinar
Presentation of 2022 Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award to Laurence Zitvogel
Bob Pinedo Cancer Care Award 2022 for Laurence Zitvogel.
View webinar