The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented Olivier Delattre, MD, PhD, with the 2023 AACR–St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer Research during the AACR Annual Meeting 2023 in April in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Delattre is Director of the SIREDO Oncology Center and Research Unit Director of the Cancer, Heterogeneity, Instability, and Plasticity (CHIP) Unit at Inserm/Institut Curie. He was recognized for a series of seminal genetic insights into the etiology of pediatric solid tumors that have had substantial clinical implications.
Olivier Delattre, MD, PhD
The AACR and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation established the AACR–St. Baldrick’s Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Pediatric Cancer in 2019. It was created to bring attention to major pediatric cancer research discoveries and to honor individuals who have significantly contributed to any area of pediatric cancer research, resulting in fundamental improvement in the understanding and treatment of pediatric cancer.
Focus of Research
Dr. Delattre is acclaimed for having transformed the field of pediatric cancer research by opening new avenues for pediatric cancer screening, in addition to improving the precision of molecular diagnostics. He was the first to report the molecular characterization of the EWS::FLI1 chromosomal translocation in Ewing sarcoma, which is now central to the accurate diagnosis of that cancer. He has also been instrumental in identifying genetic alterations in other childhood cancers, including the BCOR::CCNB3 translocation in Ewing-like sarcoma as well as ALK mutations in neuroblastoma and other EWS translocation–positive sarcomas. He was one of the first to demonstrate the existence of mutations within chromatin remodeling complexes in cancer, which are now known to occur in approximately 20% of human cancers. Dr. Delattre’s work has been crucial to identifying major cancer predisposition genes for neurofibromatosis type 2, neuroblastoma, and a rhabdoid tumor predisposition syndrome, generating new insights into pediatric cancer susceptibility.
Dr. Delattre has been a leader in developing genetically engineered mouse models for neuroblastoma and rhabdoid tumors. These models have been used to evaluate candidate drug targets, assess therapeutic efficacy, and investigate drug resistance mechanisms. He has explored the oncogenic plasticity of pediatric cancers, furthering the understanding of the development of pediatric solid tumors. More recently, his work has focused on the identification of tumor-specific neogenes driven by chimeric transcription factors in sarcoma, work that has the potential to establish innovative avenues for the development of new therapeutic approaches for pediatric cancer.
Dr. Delattre received his medical degree from Pierre and Marie Curie University and earned his PhD in molecular biology from Paris Diderot University.
