Professor Alberto Mantovani, scientific director of Humanitas, received the ITOC Lifetime Achievement Award today in Vienna, while on April 3 he received – on the occasion of the annual meeting of the AACR, the American association for cancer research – the Pezcoller Prize 2019 (which will be officially presented to him on May 11, in Trento, Italy).
The ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (ITOC) Lifetime Achievement Award
The ITOC Award was given to the professor in Vienna during the most important European meeting, focused entirely on cancer immunotherapy.
The prize – which is relatively young, especially since the clinical application of cancer immunotherapy is also young – was awarded to Professor Mantovani for his overall contribution, during his scientific career, to the development of immunological strategies in the fight against cancer.
The Pezcoller Prize 2019
The official announcement of the award to Prof. Mantovani took place last year in Atlanta, on April 3, at the meeting of the American Association for Research on Cancer (AACR) – also a partner of the Pezcoller Foundation for the organization of the Prize – in front of an audience of thousands of scientists and researchers from around the world.
The scientific director of Humanitas is the first Italian who works in our country to receive this award and has been chosen by an international scientific committee from a list of over 30 scientists from the best research institutes in the world.
The award particularly honors his discovery of the close relationship between inflammation and cancer, based on macrophages, cells of the immune system that facilitate the growth of cancer rather than combat it.
“These awards – explained Prof. Mantovani – are a source of pride not only for me, but also for the institutions I represent and for my country. They are a reward for all the people, especially the young people, who have worked beside me in these years”.
