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application process. The CTCR Research Endowment provides vital early-stage funding to accelerate lab research and subsequent progress to the clinical trials process, thereby strengthening the case for grant funding down the line.
Current translational cancer research studies are extending the boundaries of what we know about cancer. Examples of the cutting-edge research currently under way in the CTCR include:
Breast Cancer Research
1) An Innovative Blood-Based Diagnostic Test for Breast Cancer
Jennifer Sims Mourtada, PhD, Senior Research Scientist and Director of Translational Breast Cancer Research in the CTCR, is leading a research project to create a novel companion diagnostic blood test for breast cancer that can
be used along with mammography as
a screening tool for the detection of invasive breast cancer and a method
to monitor patients for response and recurrence. This simple blood test, used in combination with mammography,
against breast cancer by determining whether cancer is present in the breast and whether the cancer is likely to spread. Using this test could minimize over-diagnosis and treatment while in health care-related costs. Studies have shown that mammograms alone are not optimal for diagnosing all types of breast cancer. The positive predictive value
of mammography is around 30-40%, meaning that 60-70% of the 1.8 million biopsies performed in the United States each year are unnecessary, with a cost of around $2 billion in the U.S. per year.4,5 This blood test focuses on identifying
an epigenetic biomarker within the DNA of patients’ blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system and is different from other diagnostic tests that
Jennifer Sims Mourtada, PhD (third from the left), Director of the Breast Cancer Translational Research Program, with her laboratory team.
target cancer tumors. Early data reveals that this blood test has an accuracy
of 80%, a sensitivity of 83%, and
This test is critical and will have a major impact in Delaware, which is among
the states with the highest incidence of triple negative breast cancer in the United States.6,7 This research is funded through the Friends of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center and the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation. Based on early success, a patent application has been submitted.
2) New Treatments for Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Delaware is among the states with the highest incidence of Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC).6,7,8 TNBC is
an aggressive form of breast cancer
that accounts for approximately 15%
of all breast cancers. Survival rates for those for women with hormone receptor (estrogen receptor positive) breast cancer. Patients who have systemic recurrences are treated with repeated cycles of
chemotherapy, which are rarely curative and are associated with high morbidity. Unlike other forms of breast cancer, there is no targeted therapy available for TNBC. Thus, there is a critical need for targeted agents to improve survival outcomes and decrease toxicity associated with multiple rounds of chemotherapy.
The goal of this second project of
Dr. Sims Mourtada’s research team
is to identify new, targeted therapies
for TNBC that can rapidly translate to clinical use. Preliminary data indicates
of TNBC, resulting from large numbers patients with high numbers of T-cells respond well to chemotherapy, those with signatures of chronic B-cell-
driven immune responses often have poor outcomes. Data generated in
the Sims Mourtada lab demonstrates
that the presence of a certain type of immunosuppressive B-cell correlates with cancer recurrence and poor survival in TNBC. Moreover, crosstalk between cancer cells and B-cells results in a
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Del Med J | March/April 2021 | Vol. 93 | No. 2
