Massachusetts Researchers To Receive Nearly $4.7 Million From Susan G. Komen®

Largest NonProfit Funder of Breast Cancer Research Focuses Funding for 2013 on Environmental Links to Breast Cancer

Susan G. Komen® today announced nearly $4.7 million in new funding to researchers at two Massachusetts institutions, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, to more fully understand the role that environmental issues play in breast cancer development. The new grants will build on research that Komen has already funded to more fully understand the role of toxins and other environmental factors that may contribute to breast cancer. These grants will be part of Komen’s $42 million 2013 research portfolio.

Ronni Cohen-Boyar, executive director of Komen MA said, “Since 1982, Komen has invested more than $55 million in research funding to Massachusetts institutions. The Komen affiliate also funded more than $10.1 million to community health programs that provide screenings, financial aid and social and emotional support to women and families throughout the state.” A list of local public health programs funded by Komen MA in 2013-14 can be found here.

“Up to 75 percent of the net funds we raise locally, stay here to support our local community health and education programs. The other 25 percent helps fund Komen’s national research programs,” Boyar said.  “We’re thankful for our supporters who help us serve our communities here at home, while supporting our education and research institutions.”

The 2013 Massachusetts research grants will focus on gene mutations, breast cancer treatments and preventing disease recurrence. The grant recipients are:

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
    $1 million to Andrea Richardson, M.D., Ph.D., to study autophagy, a process of “self-digestion” in some cancer tumors that allows cancer cells to survive and conserve energy.  High autophagy levels have been linked to cancer recurrence and resistance to standard therapies. Richardson’s team will investigate the underpinnings of autophagy and test drug combinations that may successfully combat it.
    Three studies involve HER2 breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease that is diagnosed in approximately 25 percent of breast cancer patients. Komen research is focused on understanding and finding personalized treatments for aggressive forms of the disease, and recipients of Komen research funding at Dana-Farber include:
        $250,000 to Komen’s co-Chief Scientific Advisor Eric Winer, M.D., to conduct clinical trials on HER2+ breast cancer.
        $450,000 to Susan Moody, Ph.D., and $175,000 to Ian Krop, M.D., Ph.D., for separate studies into why HER2 treatments become ineffective over time. Moody’s team will identify and test gene mutations with an eye toward identifying targets for treatment. Krop’s team will investigate the mechanisms by which patients develop resistance to the standard treatment tastuzumab (Herceptin).


    $100,000 to Nadine Tung, M.D., for clinical trials to test the addition of the drug cisplatin to standard chemotherapy for women with genetically based BRCA-associated breast cancers. Currently, the same treatment regimens are used for breast cancer in BRCA mutation carriers as well as non-carriers. Tung’s team will be studying the effect of adding cisplatin to standard treatments for these cancers in a Phase II clinical trial involving eight medical institutions.
    $175,000 to Komen Scholar Ann Partridge, M.D., for a study into fertility concerns for young women diagnosed with breast cancer. This builds on a survey Partridge conducted of 478 women under 40, newly diagnosed with breast cancer, which found that concerns about having children in the future influenced some patients’ cancer treatment decisions.
    Two studies totaling $675,000 to investigate how the BRCA1 gene mutation develops into breast cancer. Komen Scholar David Livingston, M.D., is investigating why women carrying the mutant BRCA1 gene develop breast cancer, and why women in BRCA1-affected families develop cancer while men, in general, do not. In a separate study, Shailja Pathania, Ph.D., is focused on finding early defects in cells of BRCA1 mutation carrying women with a goal of stopping them before they spread.

Additional grant recipients in Boston:
$225,000 to Komen Scholar Joan Brugge, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School to investigate the role two proteins play in the initiation and spread of lobular breast cancer.   Dr. Brugge and team also will then collaborate with others to promote the development

 

Environmental Grants Topics
The five environmental grants awarded for 2013 include separate studies on the impact of radiation exposure on breast cancer development during screening and treatment; pollutants in areas where cancer rates are disproportionately high; the impact of air pollution on breast cancer development, and the role of synthetic chemicals called phthalates.

These grants include grants to Brigham and Women’s Medical Center in Boston; Duke University in Durham, N.C.; Emory University in Atlanta; and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

About Susan G. Komen® and the Komen MA Affiliate
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen ®, and launched a global breast cancer movement. The Massachusetts Affiliate is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in the local community, joining more than 1 million breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Through events like the Komen MA Race for the Cure®, the MA Affiliate invested over $1 million in community breast health programs in the state during 2009-10. Up to nearly 80 percent of net proceeds generated by the Affiliate stays in the state of Massachusetts. The remaining income goes to the national Susan G. Komen ® Grants Program to fund research. For more information, call 617-737-5111 or visit www.komenmass.org.