Rowley received the Lasker Award for discovering chromosomal translocations cause leukemia and other cancers, enabling molecular cancer diagnosis.
On September 25, 1998, Janet Rowley was honored with the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in American medicine, often referred to as "America's Nobel."
The award recognized her body of work identifying recurring chromosomal translocations across multiple types of human cancers, including leukemias and lymphomas. Her research had demonstrated conclusively that these translocations were not incidental byproducts of cancerous cells but were, in fact, causative genetic events driving the disease.
This recognition validated decades of painstaking cytogenetic work, much of which she performed using relatively simple laboratory techniques compared to the molecular tools of the era. The Lasker Foundation specifically cited how her discoveries had made possible the molecular diagnosis of cancer, allowing clinicians to identify specific genetic markers in patients' cancer cells to guide diagnosis and treatment.
The award cemented Rowley's status as a pioneer who had single-handedly shifted the field of oncology toward a genetic understanding of cancer, work that directly informed the development of targeted therapies such as imatinib for chronic myelogenous leukemia.