Cancer Researcher Wins Prize for Mesothelioma Breakthrough
Research & Clinical Trials
Written by Travis Rodgers | Edited by Amy Edel
Dr. Michele Carbone, who directs thoracic oncology at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, is the 2026 recipient of the Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research. The National Foundation for Cancer Research presents the award annually to honor scientists whose discoveries change how the field understands cancer and inform clinical practice and public health.
The NFCR established the prize in 2006, and a panel of 13 leading cancer researchers and clinicians selects each recipient. Past honorees have come from Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Carbone received the award for decades of work studying why some people develop mesothelioma and others don’t. His team has received approximately 90% of all National Cancer Institute funding designated for mesothelioma research, and that work has influenced government action on public health protections.
He’ll accept the prize on October 9, 2026, at the NFCR Global Summit and Award Ceremonies for Cancer Research & Entrepreneurship at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The event takes place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The Discovery That Reshaped the Field
Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma. But researchers have long sought to understand why some people exposed to asbestos develop this cancer and others don’t. Dr. Carbone spent more than a decade working in villages in Cappadocia, Turkey, where residents faced heavy exposure to erionite, a mineral that often develops near asbestos deposits, and where half of all residents died of mesothelioma.
His research there identified inherited mutations in a gene called BAP1 as a contributing risk factor. Dr. Carbone found that people who carry those mutations face elevated risk not just for mesothelioma, but for eye and skin melanoma, renal cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and other cancers, a pattern he identified as a distinct hereditary cancer syndrome. BAP1 normally works to suppress tumor growth, and understanding how mutations disable that function has opened new directions in mesothelioma research worldwide.
Dr. Bruce Beutler, a Nobel Laureate and professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, served on the prize committee and described the scope of the work. “He began with a rare cancer and a known environmental association, applied rigorous field epidemiology to an exposed population on the other side of the world, and tracked down a susceptibility gene that broke open the entire field of mesothelioma pathogenesis,” Dr. Beutler said. “His discoveries have brought great clarity to what had been a longstanding medical mystery, and given real hope to patients and families who previously had none.”
Science That Changed Public Policy
Dr. Carbone’s findings prompted direct government action on two continents. In Cappadocia, his research led the Turkish government to build entirely new villages and hospitals and relocate genetically susceptible populations away from erionite exposure. In North Dakota, his work led the state government to repave more than 300 miles of roadways containing potentially asbestos-contaminated erionite, a precautionary measure to reduce the risk of exposure to road dust that traffic kicked into the air.
Today, BAP1 genetic testing and BAP1 immunohistochemical staining, a lab test used to identify abnormal BAP1 activity in tissue, are standard practices in medicine worldwide. These tools help clinicians identify patients with BAP1 cancer syndrome and establish personalized surveillance, early detection and intervention plans.
People who inherit BAP1 mutations and receive monitoring and early treatment survive significantly longer than people diagnosed with sporadic mesothelioma, which is mesothelioma with no inherited genetic component and carries a median survival of 12 to 18 months. Several patients monitored under Dr. Carbone’s protocols have survived well beyond what their diagnosis once suggested, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute has opened two clinical trials directly in response to his discoveries.
Dr. Webster K. Cavenee of the University of California, San Diego, described the real-world impact. “He worked with governments in Turkey and in the United States to fix the environmental conditions that were killing people, and he succeeded,” Dr. Cavenee said. “The result is not just thousands of lives saved, but generations of people who will never develop these cancers because of the action he inspired.”
Hope for People Facing Mesothelioma Today
For people diagnosed with mesothelioma and their families, Dr. Carbone’s work represents something concrete: better tools, earlier detection and longer mesothelioma survival. His research helped establish that early detection can change the meaning of a mesothelioma diagnosis for patients and families. For people who carry BAP1 mutations, early identification and monitoring can make a life-changing difference.
Dr. Carbone’s current research builds on those discoveries. His team is now investigating why cancers that develop in people with BAP1 mutations often grow more slowly and invade less aggressively than other mesotheliomas. Understanding that biological difference could open the door to new therapies that help more patients resist cancer spread and live longer. That work continues at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.
Carbone reflected on what drives that work. “There is nothing as rewarding as saving lives, telling someone, actually you, your daughter, your son, do not have to die of cancer, you probably will live till old age, and then to see them again, year after year, happy,” he said. “I am incredibly fortunate that my research allowed me to do exactly that.”
