V. Craig Jordan

Virgil Craig Jordan, OBE, PhD, DSc (born Texas, USA) is a scientist specializing in drugs for breast cancer treatment and prevention. Currently Vice President and Scientific Director for Medical Science at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Jordan was the first to discover the breast cancer prevention properties of tamoxifen. More recently his work has branched out into the prevention of osteoporosis.

A highly regarded researcher, his paper The Effect of Raloxifene on Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women - Results from the more Randomized Trial was one of the top 20 most cited papers in breast cancer research during 2003 and 2004

Early life
Born to an English mother and American father in New Braunfels, Texas, U.S., Jordan moved to England with his family as a child. He went to school in Cheshire before attending the University of Leeds where he received a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology.

Research career
Jordan began working on the structure-activity of anti-estrogens as part of his PhD at Leeds University. During that time he met Arthur Walpole the patent holder for the drug that became tamoxifen.

In September of 1972 Jordan became a visiting scientist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, Massachusetts. While there he began researching the idea that tamoxifen, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), could block estrogen receptors in breast tumors. Estrogen receptors in breast tumors attract estrogen which is then absorbed into the cancerous cell and encourages the cell to divide, causing the cancer to grow. Until this time, the treatment for this type of breast cancer was oophorectomy.

Jordan returned to Leeds University as a lecturer in pharmacology between 1974 and 1980, after which he spent one year at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Berne, Switzerland.

In 1980 Jordan joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he started to look at the effects of tamoxifen and another SERM, raloxifene, on bone density and coronary systems. This was needed because of the concern that long term use of SERMs could lead to osteoporosis and heart disease. Jordan's research showed that post-menopausal women who took these drugs did not suffer from a lowering of bone density or an increase in blood cholesterol. Raloxifene is now used in the prevention of osteoporosis. Jordan gained full professorship at Wisconsin in 1985, the same year his alma mater awarded him a DSc.

In 1993 Jordan became professor of cancer pharmacology at Northwestern University Medical School and director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Most recently, in January 2005, Jordan took over the Alfred G. Knudson Chair of Cancer Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. He has recently published work showing that estrogen, given at the right time, causes the destruction of cancer cells rather than feeding their growth.

Personal life
Jordan is married to Monica Morrow, M.D., a breast cancer surgeon and chairman of surgical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. They co-authored the book Managing Breast Cancer Risk.

Awards
2006 American Cancer Society Award and Lecture.

2003 Kettering Prize

2002 American Cancer Society Medal of Honor for basic research.

2002 named an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to international breast cancer research.

2001 Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research.

2001 Doctor of Medicine,honoris causa from the University of Leeds

1993 Cameron Prize from the University of Edinburgh

1992 The Gaddum Memorial Award from the British Pharmacological Society

1992 Brinker International Breast Cancer Award for Basic Science from Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Publications

 * Morrow, Monica & Jordan, V. Craig, (2003) Managing Breast Cancer Risk, B.C. Decker, ISBN 1-55009-260-X


 * Chatterton R, Matteo ET, Hou N, Rademaker AF, Acharya S, Jordan VC, Morrow M. (2005). Characteristics of salivary profiles of oestradiol and progesterone in premenopausal women. Journal of Endocrinology 186(1):77-84.


 * Chen, B., Gajdos, C., Dardes, R., Kidwai, N., Johnston, S.R.D., Dowsett, M., and Jordan, V.C. (2005) Potential of endogenous estrogen receptor beta to influence the selective ER modulator ER beta complex. International Journal of Oncology 27(2):327-35.


 * Cordero, F. and Jordan, V.C. (2005) Hormone receptors and biology of breast cancer. In: Seminars in Oncology (eds. John W. Yarbro and Michael Mastrangelo), W.B. Saunders. Philadelphia, PA (in press)


 * Jordan VC, Lewis JS, Osipo C, Cheng D: (2005) The apoptotic action of estrogen following exhaustive antihormonal therapy: A new clinical treatment strategy. Breast 14:624-30.


 * Jordan, V.C. Case Histories: Tamoxifen. In: Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II, Volume 8 (eds. John Taylor and David Triggle) Elsevier Limited, Oxford, UK. (in press).


 * Jordan VC (2005) (Editorial) Chemoprevention in the 21st Century: Is a balance best or should women have no estrogen at all? Journal of Clinical Oncology, 23:1-3.


 * Jordan, VC, (2005) (Commentary): Time for a Change to the Aromatase Inhibitors? Evidence Based Obstetrics and Gynecology 7:103-4.


 * Jordan, V.C. (2005) (Editorial) Medroxyprogesterone Acetate and Metastases: of mice and (wo)men. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 97:619-621.


 * Jordan, V.C. (2005) 75th Anniversary Edition British Journal of Pharmacology Special Issue. Tamoxifen (ICI46,474) as a targeted therapy to treat and prevent breast cancer. British Journal of Pharmacology (in press).


 * Jordan, V.C. (2005) Activated estrogens and antiestrogens: A 30 year journey with David Kupfer. Drug Metabolism Reviews. Memorial Issue (in press).


 * Kamradt MC, Lu M, Werner M, Kwan T, Feng C, Strohecker A, Oshita S, Wilkinson, JC, Yu C, Oliver PG, Duckett CS, Buchsbaum DJ, LoBuglio AF, Jordan VC, Cryns VL (2005) The small heat shock protein aB-crystallin is a novel inhibitor of TRAIL-induced apoptosis that suppresses the activation of caspase-3. Journal of Biological Chemistry 280:11059-66.


 * Levenson AS, Thurn KE, Simons LA, Veliceasa D, Jarrett J, Osipo C, Jordan VC, Volpert OV, Satcher RL (Jr), Gartenhaus RB. (2005). MCT-1 Oncogene contributes to increased in vivo tumorigenicity of MCF-7 Cells by promotion of angiogenesis and inhibition of apoptosis. Cancer Res 65: (in press).


 * Lewis, JS and Jordan, V.C. Case Histories: Raloxifene. In: Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II, Volume 8 (eds. John Taylor and David Triggle) Elsevier Limited, Oxford, UK (in press).


 * Lewis JS, Jordan VC. (2005) Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators (SERMs): Mechanisms of anticarcinogenesis and resistance. Mutation Research-Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (Special Issue) 591:247-63.


 * Lewis, J.S., Osipo, C., Meeke, K. and Jordan, V.C. (2005) Estrogen-induced apoptosis in a breast cancer model resistant to aromatase inhibitors. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 94:131-41.


 * Lewis JS, Meeke K, Osipo C, Ross EA, Kidawi N, Li T, Bell E, Chandel NS, Jordan, VC. (2005). Intrinsic mechanism of estradiol-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cells resistant to estrogen deprivation. Journal of the National Cancer Institute (in press).


 * Osipo, C., Gajdos, C. and Jordan, V.C. (2005) Reversal of tamoxifen resistant breast cancer by low dose estrogen therapy. Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular biology 93:249-56.


 * Osipo C, Meeke K, Liu H, Chen D, Lim S, Weichel A, Jordan VC (2005) Trastuzumab therapy for tamoxifen-stimulated endometrial cancer. Cancer Research 65:8504-8513.


 * Park WC, Liu H, MacGregor Schafer J, Jordan VC. (2005) Deregulation of estrogen induced telomerase activity in tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer cells. International Journal of Oncology 27:1459-66. bv