The International Aspirin Foundation presents Dr Tracey Simon with the prestigious Emerging Aspirin Investigator Science Award for her seminal work linking aspirin with hepatocellular cancer prevention.
The International Aspirin Foundation (IAF)’s Science Award for the Emerging Aspirin Investigator recognises junior scientists in the early stages of their research career. The award aims to acknowledge and stimulate their contribution to our understanding of aspirin in both experimental and clinical medicine. The 2021 award has seen some excellent submissions to the IAF Scientific Advisory Board on a wide variety of topics. All the applicants have made important contributions to the mechanistic understanding and clinical use of the beneficial effects of aspirin in the following areas of prevention: preeclampsia; hepatocellular cancer (HCC); frailty and functional impairment in the elderly.
The 2021 Awardee, Dr Tracey Simon (USA) was selected for her seminal work providing statistically robust epidemiological evidence for low-dose aspirin as a potential chemopreventive strategy against HCC. This would fill a vital gap in the current therapeutic armamentarium, as HCC is a highly fatal cancer with no widely utilized preventative options. Dr Simon studied 50,275 Swedish adults with confirmed hepatitis B or C infection and used rigorous causal inference approaches in order to estimate the influence of aspirin use on the development of incident HCC, liver-related mortality and gastrointestinal bleeding. She also explored aspirin’s potential mechanism of action in this preventative role. Dr Simon is currently exploring aspirin’s role in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), an important health issue.
Professor Carlo Patrono, Chair of the IAF Scientific Advisory Board presented the award and commended Dr Simon’s work stating “it has expanded the boundaries of an exciting research field, by demonstrating that the potential chemopreventive benefits of aspirin may well extend beyond colorectal cancer”
Dr Simon said “I am truly honoured to receive this award in recognition of my work”.
For further information visit https://www.aspirin-foundation.com
Publication citation: Simon TG, Duberg AS, Aleman S, Chung RT, Chan AT, Ludvigsson JF. Association of Aspirin with Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Liver-Related Mortality. N Engl J Med. 2020 Mar 12;382(11):1018-1028. PMID: 3216066