Creighton Hereditary Cancer Expert Receives IMPACT Award
Henry T. Lynch, M.D., of Creighton University, a pioneer in the field hereditary breast cancer, will receive the National Consortium of Breast Centers IMPACT award at the group’s annual meeting in March in Las Vegas.
The IMPACT award recognizes outstanding individual and interdisciplinary work in breast health care. Lynch will be honored for his work in identifying several hereditary cancer disorders, particularly for breast cancer, as significant areas for research.
Lynch is chair of preventive medicine, director of Creighton’s Hereditary Cancer Center, and holder of the Charles F. and Mary C. Heider Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.
Since the 1960s, he has pursued and uncovered genetic links to certain types of cancer once thought to be triggered almost solely by environmental causes, with a particular emphasis on breast cancer. Lynch described a hereditary breast ovarian cancer syndrome in the early 1970s, findings that led to the identification of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 germline mutations that predispose women to this syndrome.