Dr Druker gets Portland First Citizen Award :)

Dr. Brian J. Druker will receive the prestigious 2010 Portland First Citizen Award in April.

The award, given by the Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors, has been given annually since 1928 for outstanding contributions to the community.

The award will be presented at the Portland First Citizen Banquet, to be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 21 at the Governor Hotel.

Druker, who specializes in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, is director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and holds the JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at Oregon Health & Science University. He also is an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Druker is credited with leading the development of Gleevec, a revolutionary drug that helped push the survival rate of leukemia patients from 50 percent to 90 percent.

Gleevec has been approved by the Federal Drug Administration for use in pediatric patients and six other cancers.

Druker has received numerous awards for his work on the development of Gleevec, including the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Research, sometimes called “America’s Nobel." He also received the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s Pioneer of Survivorship Carpe Diem Award and the Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society.

Druker joined OHSU in 1993 after earning his medical degree from the University of California School of Medicine at San Diego. He completed his residency at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. and did an oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School.

A forerunner of the Realtor group established the First Citizen Award in 1928 to honor civic achievements and business leadership in the community. The organization will also present its Future First Citizen Award to a promising high school student and the PMAR Good Neighbor Award to a Realtor member for commitment to the community.