Retinoic acid-arsenic therapy wins Shaw Prize for three scientists

Three life scientists have been awarded Hong Kong’s Shaw Prize, often called the 'Nobel of the East,' for developing a therapy that transformed a rare and aggressive leukaemia from a death sentence to a highly curable condition. Anne Dejean (Institut Pasteur), Hugues de The (College de France), and Chen Zhu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) shared the $1.2 million life sciences and medicine prize. Their work focused on acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), a form of blood cancer that historically killed three out of four patients. The scientists identified the molecular mechanisms driving the disease, including a specific genetic mutation that produces a faulty protein in affected cells.

The breakthrough therapy combines retinoic acid and arsenic, a synergistic targeted treatment that destroys the faulty protein and causes cancer cells to lose their ability to renew themselves. Unlike traditional chemotherapy, this approach directly attacks the molecular root of APL with minimal side effects. The trio had previously been honored with the Sjoberg Award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2018 for the same work. The Shaw Prize recognition cements the therapy's status as a landmark achievement in oncology, offering a model for developing targeted treatments for other cancers driven by specific genetic abnormalities.