University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Professor, Department of Nutrition Nutrition Research Institute and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina
To understand the drivers of obesity-related breast cancer and develop effective prevention interventions.
Obesity is an important risk and prognostic factor for several types of breast cancer, but relatively few studies examine whether the cancer-promoting effects of chronic obesity can be reversed. Dr. Hursting’s research established that robust weight loss accomplished by bariatric surgery and various calorie-restricted diets can reverse obesity-associated metabolic, inflammatory, and pro-cancer effects. However, the expense and risks associated with bariatric surgery and the challenge in maintaining severe calorie restricted diets precludes the use of either method to reverse the effects of chronic obesity. These limitations combined with high obesity prevalence, create an urgent need for new ways to break obesity-breast cancer links.
Dr. Hursting is investigating a new weight loss strategy with the goal of achieving the positive effects of weight loss on breast cancer risk. He is testing the drugs semaglutide (Ozempic®, Wegovy®), and tirzepatide (Zepbound®, Mounjaro®), which are FDA approved for weight loss. He and his team aim to determine whether these drugs affect the development and progression of estrogen receptor-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and have effects on biomarkers of disease. If successful, this could be an effective way to achieve the positive effects of weight loss on breast cancer risk.
Dr. Hursting and his team plan to study the effects of tirzepatide on obesity, focusing on three main areas: 1) how it influences the development and progression of TNBC; 2) its effects on hormones and genetic profiles in the mammary tissue and tumors; and 3) how it changes the diversity and functions of the gut microbiome.
Dr. Stephen Hursting is Professor in the Department of Nutrition and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill and Professor at the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis, NC. He earned his PhD in nutritional biochemistry and MPH in nutritional epidemiology from the UNC-Chapel Hill, and he completed postdoctoral training in molecular carcinogenesis and cancer prevention at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Prior to joining the UNC faculty in 2014, Dr. Hursting was Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and Professor of Molecular Carcinogenesis at the UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center (2005-14). He also served as Deputy Director of the NCI’s Office of Preventive Oncology and Chief of the NCI’s Nutrition and Molecular Carcinogenesis Laboratory Section (1999-2005). His research interests center on diet-gene interactions relevant to cancer prevention, particularly the molecular and metabolic mechanisms underlying obesity-breast cancer associations, and the interplay between obesity, diabetes and breast cancer risk and response to therapy. Primarily using specially engineered laboratory models of breast cancer in parallel with breast cancer prevention trials (in collaboration with Dr. Carol Fabian at the Kansas Cancer Center), he is currently focusing on the molecular and metabolic changes occurring in response to lifestyle-based (dietary and physical activity), or pharmacologic manipulation of energy metabolism and cell signaling pathways, with emphasis on the IGF-1/Akt/mTOR and Wnt signaling pathways as well as inflammation. He also has expertise in assessing diet-related serum and tissue biomarkers, including hormones/growth factors, cytokines and chemokines, and microRNA’s in tissue samples.
2003
The Lampert Foundation Award
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