Celebrating the achievements of those working to champion women working in cancer research

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2025 Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Research Award is Karin de Visser (NKI, Oncode Institute, Leiden University Medical Center).

Karin was nominated for this award for her commitment to supporting the next generation of scientists through mentoring, leadership, and strategic direction. Through these actions she has not only supported individual women in their scientific careers but has also worked to create a more equitable and inclusive environment for all.

The Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Research Award celebrates a cancer researcher of any gender who has demonstrated academic excellence and achievements in the field of cancer research and who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of women in cancer research. The award is presented at the annual EACR Congress to a researcher of excellence who has spent the majority of their research career in Europe, and the winner receives a €10,000 honorarium.

Karin de Visser will deliver the Pezcoller-Marina Larcher Fogazzaro-EACR Women in Cancer Research Award lecture at the EACR 2025 Congress. She will also be invited to give a lecture in Trento, Italy, at the Pezcoller Foundation. 

About the 2025 Winner

Karin de Visser is group leader at the Division of Tumor Biology & Immunology of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam and Oncode Institute, and a full professor of Experimental Immunobiology of Cancer at Leiden University Medical Center. She obtained her PhD in 2002 at the NKI in the field of cancer immunotherapy, well before immunotherapy transformed cancer patient care. During her postdoctoral research at UCSF with Prof. Lisa Coussens (2003-2005), she expanded her knowledge into the inflammation and cancer field. In 2005 she returned to the NKI, where she joined the lab of Prof. Jos Jonkers to gain expertise with conditional mouse models for breast cancer before establishing her own research group.

Her lab investigates the role of the immune system in breast cancer metastasis formation and therapy response. Her most recognized contribution has been her work on how tumor-induced systemic inflammation drives neutrophil-dependent immunosuppression and metastasis formation. By integrating tumor immunology and cancer genetics, her team demonstrated the importance of the genetic make-up of breast cancer in shaping the immune landscape. Moreover, in collaboration with Dr. Marleen Kok, her lab discovered a critical role for eosinophils in immunotherapy response of breast cancer.

Karin de Visser’s achievements include an ERC consolidator grant (2014), the Metastasis Research Prize of the Beug Foundation (2015), election as an EMBO young investigator (2016), and EMBO member (2021). She has served on the Research Management Committee of Oncode Institute (2018-2024) and now co-leads the research theme Immunotherapy at the NKI.

About the Pezcoller Foundation

The Pezcoller Foundation is a non-profit institution, whose goal is to promote scientific research against diseases which afflict mankind, specifically the fight against cancer. The Founder, Prof. Alessio Pezcoller, was Chief Surgeon at Santa Chiara Hospital in Trento, Italy. The Foundation was established in 1980.

The Foundation depends primarily on the substantial sum of money bequeathed by Professor Alessio Pezcoller, and by significant contributions from its sponsors: the Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto Foundation, the Province of Trento, the Administrative Councils of Trento and of Rovereto and other occasional private donations.

Due to its ever increasing recognition within the international oncological community, the Foundation collaborates with some of the most important cancer institutions: the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR). The Pezcoller Awards are officially recognised during the international conferences of the two above mentioned associations.