MD Anderson Research Highlights for February 21, 2024

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. Recent developments at MD Anderson offer insights into drug-drug interactions for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes; patient-derived xenograft models as a viable translational research tool in early-phase clinical trials; a novel gene expression signature to stratify patients with bladder cancer; a potential therapeutic target to overcome treatment resistance in multiple myeloma; a role for mutant p53 in protecting against ferroptosis in triple-negative breast cancer; and diet modifications to improve treatment outcomes in FLT3-mutated AML.

Expert Available for Comment on Black Women, Breast Cancer and Clinical Trials

While there has been an overall decline in breast cancer deaths over the last 30 years, there is a persistent and significant mortality gap between Black women and white women. Black women are also disproportionately affected by more aggressive subtypes of…

Breast Cancer Research Foundation Renews Support for Mount Sinai Research on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) has renewed its funding to Elisa Port, MD, and Hanna Irie, MD, PhD, to study new therapeutic approaches that target aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. The latest installment of $225,000 brings the total to almost $2 million over the past nine years. It will fund research into the immune microenvironment of triple-negative breast cancer in order to identify new strategies to enhance cancer-fighting immune responses for this aggressive breast cancer, which traditionally has few options for treatment.

How a plant virus could protect and save your lungs from metastatic cancer

Using a virus that grows in black-eyed pea plants, researchers developed a new therapy that could keep metastatic cancers from spreading to the lungs, as well as treat established tumors in the lungs.

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Expert Available for Comment on Disparities in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

New Brunswick, N.J., August 24 2021 – Cancer is a disease that can impact anyone, but it does not impact everyone equally. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Black women, and Black women…

Therapeutic resistance linked to softer tissue environment in breast cancer

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered that aggressive, triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) can evade treatment by reorganizing and softening the collagen matrix that surrounds the cancer cells. The study, which will be published April 2 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), shows that the softer matrix activates a signaling pathway that promotes the cancer cells’ survival, and suggests that targeting this pathway could enhance the effectiveness of chemo- and radiotherapy in TNBC patients.

HDAC6 Can Control Tumor Growth and Halt Metastasis in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Genetic modifier HDAC6 was found to control tumor growth and halt metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer in vivo, according to a new study published in the journal Cancer Research by investigators at the GW Cancer Center.

Study Examines Genetic Testing in Diverse Young Breast Cancer Patients over a Decade

Researchers examined racial and ethnic differences in genetic testing frequency and results among diverse breast cancer patients diagnosed at age 50 or younger from January 2007 to December 2017. They found that among 1,503 diverse young breast cancer patients, less than half (46.2 percent) completed hereditary breast and ovarian cancer genetic testing. However, the percentage of women who completed genetic testing increased over time from 15.3 percent in 2007 to a peak of 72.8 percent in 2015.

Researchers Create a Potential Therapy for Deadly Breast Cancer That Has Few Treatment Options

Mount Sinai researchers have designed an innovative experimental therapy that may be able to stop the growth of triple-negative breast cancer, the deadliest type of breast cancer, which has few effective treatment options, according to a study published in Nature Chemical Biology in December.