Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, New York
Vice Chair, Oncology Care, Department of Medicine Section Head, Triple Negative Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program
Targeting alternative steroid receptors in triple negative breast cancer.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) refers to a diverse group of breast cancers that lack the typical hormone receptors found in most breast cancers, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor, as well as the HER2 protein—and are thus not candidates for endocrine or anti-HER2 therapies. The standard of care for TNBC remains chemotherapy-based treatment. In search of other therapeutic targets, studies found that 12 to 50 percent of TNBC harbor the androgen receptor (AR) or signs of AR activation. When AR-positive TNBC recurs they are likely to also have high levels of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which may work with AR to drive tumor growth. With this information, Drs. Tiffany Traina and Rita Nanda, and their teams designed a clinical trial to test the use of AR and GR-targeting drugs on patient with AR-positive, metastatic TNBC.
The study is now open at MSKCC and will be followed by University of Chicago and other collaborating sites throughout the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium—a consortium of leading academic clinical sites across the United States.
The study will ultimately enroll 201 patients. It will assess the ability of the AR-targeting enzalutamide alone or in combination with a GR-targeting agent, mifepristone, to extend progression free survival when compared with chemotherapy.
Tiffany A. Traina, MD, is Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine and has been a medical oncologist on the Breast Medicine Service since 2006. She is also the Section Head of the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program in which she works to develop new treatment options for this sub-type of breast cancer. Dr. Traina serves on the Triple Negative Breast Cancer working group panel of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Collaborative, and has lectured internationally, presenting her research findings at forums including the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). She is a member of the New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group and serves on the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical & Medical Oncology. She has been recognized with the Hally Yacino Steiner Award by the Susan G Komen Foundation as well as the Hero Award by the TNBC foundation in 2014.
2019
The University of Chicago Medicine Chicago, Illinois
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