Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center received a prestigious award and a $600,000 grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research, one of the nation’s leading organizations devoted exclusively to funding cancer research.
The collaboration between investigators at the VCU Massey Cancer Center and the Baylor College of Medicine will examine tumor-to-tumor differences in gene expression and how these genetic differences affect response to different chemotherapy drugs. By predicting the best drug to shrink a patient’s tumor, doctors could potentially select life-saving cancer treatments while avoiding side effects from less effective drug treatments.
“For many years, steroid hormone receptor-based predictive assays have saved lives by identifying which breast cancer patients are likely to benefit from estrogen receptor- inhibiting drugs,” said Peter O’Connell, PhD, chairman of VCU’s human genetics department and a lead researcher on the project for the Massey Cancer Center.
“Our study with colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine can extend these benefits to patients who need more toxic anti-cancer drugs,” said O’Connell. “Predicting likely drug responses before beginning chemotherapy may afford a quantum leap in breast cancer treatment success.”
The researchers’ study, published last year in The Lancet, suggests that chemotherapy treatments can be customized to the genetic profile of an individual patient’s tumor.
The VCU research team, in addition to O’Connell, includes Harry Bear, M.D., chief of surgical oncology; Carleton Garrett, division chair, pathology; Kelly Archer, assistant professor, biostatistics; Steven Townson, assistant professor, human genetics; and Catherine Dumur, molecular diagnostic technician, pathology; and Jim Kruse, M.D., surgical oncology research fellow.
Collaborators from Baylor College of Medicine include Jenny Chang, M.D., clinical oncologist; and Craig Allred, M.D., anatomic pathologist.