BACKGROUND

Despite an increased global effort to end breast cancer, it continues to be the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in the United States. In 2009, more than 192,300 women learned that they had breast cancer, and over 40,100 died from it, accounting for nearly 27% of all new cancer cases and 15% of all cancer deaths among women last year.

These troubling numbers are a constant reminder that new therapeutic approaches that will improve patient survival are still desperately needed. It cannot be forgotten that, to make advances in clinical care for this devastating disease requires continuous support of cutting-edge research -- research that will lead to more effective strategies for breast cancer treatment and prevention. The National Foundation for Cancer Research is committed to funding cutting-edge breast cancer research projects pioneered by leaders in the field. Through their efforts to develop highly sensitive molecular imaging technology for early detection of breast cancer, explore new ways to overcome tumor drug resistance, and identify gene signatures for predicting treatment response in breast cancer patients, NFCR scientists have mounted a solid attack on breast cancer. This is the type of innovative research that may well produce new methods of saving and extending the lives of breast cancer patients.

Below are some of the notable research breakthroughs that NFCR scientists are making.

Developing Advanced Molecular Imaging Technology for Early Detection
NFCR Center for Molecular Imaging at Case Western Reserve University

Early detection of breast cancer is imperative for improving patient survival. Led by Director James Basilion, Ph.D., the NFCR Center for Molecular Imaging is dedicated to developing advanced technology, known as molecular imaging technology, to enable doctors to detect breast cancer at a very early and more treatable stage. Even at early stages, cancerous cells tend to produce certain molecules in a markedly different pattern than the surrounding normal cells. Yet small cancerous tumors are often able to continue growing unnoticed because current cancer detection methods, such as ultrasound, CT and MRI, are not able to detect such characteristic molecular differences, or biomarkers. The new molecular imaging technology that Dr. Basilion's team is developing should be able to visualize these cancer-related biomarkers, thus allowing earlier detection. Last year, Dr. Basilion's team successfully designed a novel and very sensitive method for detecting a breast cancer biomarker, the CRIP-1 protein. Further refinement of this research may well produce even more sophisticated imaging technology that will have broad applications in early diagnosis of patients with breast cancer, giving them a much better chance of winning their battle against this disease.

Making Taxol Work More Effectively
Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Taxol is one of the most widely used chemotherapy drugs in the world. It has been used to treat over a million cancer patients with breast, ovarian and lung cancer. But Taxol is not a magic bullet -- it gradually loses its effectiveness as tumors develop resistance during treatment. Internationally renowned for her discovery of the molecular mechanisms of paclitaxel, or Taxol, NFCR Scientist Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., is now exploring why tumor resistance to Taxol occurs and how to make the drug work more effectively. Recently, Dr. Horwitz confi rmed that during chemotherapy treatment, tumor cells may activate a protective molecular pathway which renders tumors resistant to Taxol. She then proposed a combinatory drug approach in which a second drug is used to inhibit the activated molecular pathway and make the tumor cells regain sensitivity to Taxol. This rational combination strategy turned out to be very effective in experiments with tumor models, and may soon enter clinical trials with cancer patients to confi rm its value as a treatment option.

Identifying Breast Cancer Patients Who Will Benefit from Hormone Therapy
Kathryn B. Horwitz, Ph.D., the University of Colorado Health Science Center

Although 80% of breast cancers depend on the hormone estrogen for their growth, anti-estrogen therapeutics such as tamoxifen do not always help to shrink these hormone-dependent tumors. Consequently, understanding how to predict which patients are most likely to benefit from hormone treatments has become one of the most vexing questions facing clinicians treating those patients. NFCR Scientist, Kathryn B. Horwitz, Ph.D., is working with patients enrolled in a clinical trial to identify biomarkers that indicate the existence of drug resistance by using gene chip or microarray technology. Their work has yielded very fruitful results. Last year, Dr. Horwitz's research team identified a group of genes that can predict which tumors will respond to hormone treatments and which will be resistant, even at the outset. Pre-treatment testing for these gene signatures would help doctors more accurately identify those patients whose tumors will respond to hormone therapy, allowing them to get the most benefit from their treatment, and avoiding unnecessary cost and harmful side effects from chemotherapy treatments that won't likely work. In addition to continuing the above research, Dr. Horwitz now plans to study breast cancer that is related to pregnancy. About 20-30% of breast cancers among premenopausal women are related to pregnancy, and these cancers are often extremely aggressive. Dr. Horwitz will investigate whether continuous exposure to the pregnancy hormones estradiol and progesterone plays a role in the aggressiveness of these breast cancers. This research holds promise for better treatment strategies for pregnancy-related breast cancer, saving more
young women's lives.

NEXT STEP: HOW CAN YOU HELP

Funding from the National Foundation for Cancer Research is used directly to support research conducted in the laboratories, including lab consumables and supplies (such as tissue culture media and gene chips); experimental reagents (such as hormones, antibodies and liposomes); equipment purchase and maintenance for tissue preservation, microarray analysis, and high resolution molecular imaging. With your help, we will deliver the funds to these laboratories so they may continue their groundbreaking research against breast cancer - one of the deadliest diseases in our time.  To donate, click here.