University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan
Professor of Radiation Oncology Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs Director, Michigan Radiation Oncology Quality Consortium
Member, BCRF Scientific Advisory Board
Identifying ways to enhance the effectiveness of radiation in women with aggressive forms of breast cancer.
Despite treatment that includes radiation therapy, many women with aggressive forms of breast cancer will experience a recurrence in the breast. Dr. Pierce has been focused on the causes of radio-resistance in breast cancer and developing radio-sensitization strategies for treating patients. With BCRF support, she has focused on the use of anti-estrogens and anti-androgens in combination with radiation to treat breast cancer. The androgen receptor (AR), a known driver of prostate cancer, is also present in many breast cancers. Since both types of drugs can indeed make radiation more effective, Dr. Pierce and her colleagues investigated whether targeting AR and ER (estrogen receptor) may be an effective radio-sensitizing strategy for treating aggressive forms of ER-positive and AR-positive breast cancer. The team is also conducting similar studies to increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy for treating other aggressive forms of breast cancer, such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).
In laboratory studies, Dr. Pierce’s team has shown increased cancer cell death with radiation and AR and ER targeted drugs whereby the combination acts on the tumor’s cell cycle machinery. These studies have also demonstrated that combination therapy also increases the immune response which has the potential to further reduce tumor growth.
In the next year, Dr. Pierce will build on her findings to study the immune response and the effects of adding drugs to augment it. Her laboratory studies will test the combination of radiation, targeted therapy against cell cycle components, and immunotherapy. If they observe improved tumor control in laboratory models, the stage will be set for the design of future clinical trials to test this novel strategy to sensitize TNBC cells to radiation.
Read more about Dr. Pierce’s work as part of BCRF’s Health Equity Initiative here.
Dr. Pierce completed residency in Radiation Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania and was a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She joined the Department of Radiation Oncology at Michigan in 1992, where she is currently Professor of Radiation Oncology and Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs.
She has published more than 170 papers and book chapters on aspects of radiotherapy (RT) in the treatment of breast cancer, and her work has been funded by the NCI, Department of Defense Funds for Breast Cancer Research, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Komen for the Cure, BCBS of Michigan and private industry.
Her research focuses on the use of RT in the treatment of breast cancer, with emphasis upon contemporary RT treatment planning techniques, the use of RT in the presence of a breast cancer susceptibility gene, and pre-clinical and clinical use of radiosensitizing agents.
2003
Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation
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