Breast Program Project Grant
Breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease, and not all malignant tumors grow rapidly, metastasize, or lead to premature death of the patient. Some tumors respond well to chemotherapy, or to hormonal therapy targeting the estrogen receptor, while others do not.
Although hyperplasias are considered pre-malignant, the majority of these lesions never do progress to in situ or invasive cancer, and many in situ cancers never develop the ability to invade. Thus, it is extremely important clinically to be able to discriminate lesions likely to progress from those not likely to cause harm.
Finally, preventive antiestrogen therapy has now been shown in the clinic to reduce the incidence of breast cancer by 40-50 percent in high-risk women. Cancers that do develop must arise through alternative pathways which have not yet been fully defined.
Therefore, the overall goal of this program project is to begin to clarify some of these clinical dilemmas by identifying and characterizing the role of novel genetic pathways, which we found to be important in the normal breast, in the pathogenesis and progression of human breast cancer.
A molecular fingerprint of gene expression derived from a patient’s tumor or ductal epithelium should help clinicians distinguish women most likely to acquire breast cancer, as well as those with breast cancer who harbor micrometastasis and are the most in need of systemic therapies.
Our prior work on ER, PR and HER-2 contributed to the clinical development and use of these assays. Clarification of other pathways involved in neoplastic progression will also identify new specific targets for innovative diagnostic, therapeutic, or preventive strategies, and such studies may yield new molecular biomarkers to help select women most likely to acquire this disease.
There are five major research projects funded in our current Breast Program Project Grant. These include:
Project 1
Integrating RNA Expression and CGH Profiles to Predict Long-term Breast Cancer Progression
Suzanne Fuqua, Ph.D., PI, and C. Kent Osborne, M.D., Co-PI
Project 2
Scaffold Attachment Factors SAFB1/2 as Novel Breast Tumor Suppressor Genes
Steffi Oesterreich, Ph.D, PI
Project 3
Targeting IGF-I and its Cross-talk with Estrogen during Breast Tumor Progression
Adrian Lee , Ph.D., PI and Darryl Hadsell, Ph.D., Co-PI
Project 4
The Ptc1 hedgehog receptor in mammary ductal development and progression to neoplasia
Michael Lewis, Ph.D., PI
Project 5
P190B, a Novel RhoGAP, in Mammary Gland Development and Breast Cancer Progression
Jeffrey M. Rosen, Ph.D., PI and Geetika Charavarty, Ph.D., Co-PI
Core A
Pathology and Tissue Resource
Jian Huang, M.D.
Core B
Biostatistics and Array Anaysis
Susan G. Hilsenbeck, Ph.D.
Core C
Animal Handling and Imaging Core
Michael T. Lewis, Ph.D.
Core D
Administrative Core
C.Kent Osborne, M.D.
The Breast Program Project Grant is supported by an Administrative Core and three research cores including our Pathology and Tissue Resource, Biostatistics and Array Analysis, and Animal Handling and Imaging Cores. The faculty in the breast cancer Breast Program Project also collaborate extensively with investigators at institutions which have been awarded breast cancer grants as well as other renowned investigators around the world.