University of Melbourne Melbourne, Australia
Associate Professor Group Leader and Medical Oncologist Peter MacCallum Cancer Center
Enhancing the benefits of CDK 4/6 inhibitors in breast cancer
CDK 4/6 inhibitors are a class of drugs designed to stop cancer cells from dividing and multiplying. They are currently used synergistically with endocrine therapy in the treatment of hormone receptor-positive advanced breast cancers. However, these drugs have also been found to stimulate T cells (a type of cancer-fighting immune cell) in a way that enhances their ability to attack against cancer. Initial trials suggest that this finding may mean that CDK 4/6 inhibitors could be more widely used to treat other breast cancer subtypes, most notably triple-negative breast cancer where the immune system is an attractive therapeutic target.
The team hypothesizes that CDK 4/6 inhibitors can boost the quality and longevity of the immune response to cancer by acting directly on “exhausted” T cells that have lost their ability to kill invading cells. They will validate their hypothesis using cutting-edge laboratory models they designed. The team will determine if laboratory observations can be confirmed in patients by analyzing a unique set of triple-negative breast cancer biopsy samples taken before and after patients were treated with a CDK4/6 inhibitor.
Shom Goel, MBBS, PhD is a physician-scientist at the University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Having completed clinical training in Australia, he spent ten years in Boston where he conducted his doctoral and postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He returned to Australia in 2019 to start his own independent research group. In addition to maintaining a clinical practice as an oncologist and triallist, he leads a research laboratory that positions itself at the intersection of cell cycle biology, epigenetics, and immunology in cancer. His team’s work at the Peter Mac has been published in Nature Cancer (2021) and Cancer Discovery (2023). Shom serves as either Global PI or Translational PI for several randomized clinical trials in breast cancer, all directly stemming from his laboratory findings. He was appointed Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Education Committee in 2023. Shom is also a recent awardee of a Snow Fellowship and Era of Hope Scholar Award (US Department of Defense).
2024
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