Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland
Associate Professor School of Medicine Johns Hopkins Hospital
Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation
Optimizing treatments for patients with triple-negative breast cancer
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. While combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy before surgery has improved responses and reduced recurrence, the current treatment regimen can cause severe side effects and does not benefit all patients. For this reason, there is a need to assess tumor response early in treatment so that adjustments to therapy can be made. Emerging evidence suggests that FDG-PET imaging and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) after just three weeks of therapy may predict which patients will experience a pathologic complete response (pCR)- show no signs of cancer at surgery.
For his Conquer Cancer Award supported by BCRF, Dr. Santa Maria will investigate if changes in FDG-PET scans and ctDNA can predict pCR by testing patients with early-stage TNBC before and after three weeks of immunotherapy plus chemotherapy. Identifying early markers will help tailor individualized therapies for patients, potentially reducing unnecessary treatment and associated side effects while improving outcomes.
Cesar Santa-Maria, MD, MS is a clinical translational researcher with nationally recognized expertise in breast cancer immunotherapy and immune biomarkers. His main research interest is in developing novel immunotherapy-based strategies and multi-platform biomarker development to identify responders to novel immune-based therapies and to understand disease biology and resistance mechanism. Early on in his career he received an NCI K08 grant (K08CA237863) to study breast cancer immunotherapy and has since obtained diverse funding for his research in breast cancer immunotherapy (NIH, DOD, AVON, BCRF, institutional, etc). He has published original research and written reviews and practice algorithms on breast cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Santa-Maria conducts several investigator-initiated, collaborative group- and industry-sponsored clinical trials in breast cancer immunotherapy. He collaborates broadly with other investigators at a national level through various research consortiums (TBCRC, ETCTN, NCTN) on translational research in breast cancer where he also holds leadership positions (TBCRC Diversity Task Force Co-Chair, ETCTN Hopkins LAO Breast CoChair). As a nationally recognized leader in breast cancer immunotherapy, he has appointments in the NCTN Breast Immuno-oncology Task Force, NCCN Breast Cancer Panel, and Steering Committees (i.e. OPTIMICE-RD).
2024
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