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Excellence in research publication award to Assoc Prof Theresa Hickey

The Faculty of Health & Medical Sciences Research Committee (University of Adelaide) have awarded Dr Theresa Hickey a Publication Excellence Award 2021 for the paper published this year in Nature Medicine (Hickey et al; 27, 310-320) entitled "The androgen receptor is a tumor suppressor in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer".  Targeting the androgen receptor (AR) in breast cancer has been of intense clinical interest over the past two decades, but widespread controversy existed over whether to use an agonist or antagonist strategy.  This publication definitively shows that AR is a tumour suppressor in estrogen receptor (ER) positive breast cancer, the most prevalent form, and that an agonist, not an antagonist, strategy exerts potent anti-tumour activity in multiple disease contexts, including disease resistant to all forms of standard-of-care therapy. The immediate global response (62 global news outlets; Altmetrics score 485) are testament to the outstanding quality of this research. Based on the preclinical studies in this paper, a phase III international clinical trial (VERU; ARTEST) commenced in July 2021.

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