News: Breast Cancer Research Program

Immunotherapies that take off the “brakes” on the adaptive anti-tumor response have worked well in melanoma and lung cancer but less so in breast cancers. That could change.

A recent study in the journal Cancer Research demonstrates that a RIG-I agonist has potent immunogenic and therapeutic effects in breast cancer.

A recent study by Rachelle Johnson, Ph.D., and colleagues looked at factors influencing the ability of breast cancer cells to colonize bone and enter and exit a dormant state.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators have received financial support from Susan G. Komen for breast cancer research.

A new study has identified 48 candidate susceptibility genes for breast cancer risk, including 14 genes at loci (chromosome regions) not yet reported for breast cancer.

Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, has been named co-leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program, director of Precision Oncology and associate director for Translational Research at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. He will assume his new post Sept. 1.

Ingrid Mayer, MD, MSCI, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and leader of the Breast Cancer Research Program, has been named a Komen Scholar for her leadership in breast cancer research. She is joined by Wayne Dornan, PhD, a patient research advocate at VICC, who will serve on the Advocates in Science Steering Committee for Susan G. Komen.

Targeting specific molecules in breast tumors, called methylating agents, can turn up the immune response, potentially making tumors responsive to immunotherapy, suggests a new study published in Nature Communications.

Ian Macara, PhD, Louise B. McGavock Professor and Chair of Cell and Developmental Biology and co-leader of the Signal Transduction and Chemical Biology Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named one of the Pink Tie Guys for the Susan G. Komen Central Tennessee organization.

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has received $2.3 million to fund a clinical research trial testing a combination of three immunotherapy compounds for patients with a specific type of advanced breast cancer.