Medical oncologist to receive AACR award for breast cancer research

Vassiliki Karantza, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist at The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) will be honored with the Genentech BioOncology Career Development Award sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) at the Association's 102nd Annual Meeting taking place April 2 through 6 in Orlando. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The award, which has a specific focus on the HER family pathway, provides Dr. Karantza, an assistant professor of medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, with $100,000 to support her work on "Autophagy and HER2 Interactions in Breast Cancer Progression and Treatment." According to the AACR, the award is designed to support the highest quality of cancer research and to provide junior faculty the opportunity to further their careers.

Previous studies by Karantza, under the mentorship of Eileen White, PhD, associate director for basic science at CINJ; adjunct professor of surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have provided insight into how autophagy defects may promote breast cancer.

Autophagy is a biological process involving self-digestion of cellular material when cells are deprived of nutrients. In most cases, autophagy acts as a cell survival mechanism protecting cells from different types of stress. According to Karantza, autophagy appears to play a role in breast cancer, as the protein level of an essential autophagy regulator, Beclin1, is low in many breast tumors indicating that defective autophagy may lead to the development of breast tumors. HER2 is part of a family of receptors found on both normal and cancerous cells. This family of receptors is important for cell growth and is found in many tumor types, including breast cancer. Breast tumors with high levels of the HER2 protein account for 20 percent of all breast cancers and are associated with a greater risk for breast cancer recurrence and death.

Through preliminary data analysis, Karantza's team determined that there is a correlation between low Beclin1 levels and the overproduction of HER2. In this latest research, Karantza and colleagues will use experimental models to look at mammary tumors in an effort to determine characteristics that are specifically associated with loss of the Beclin1 encoding gene and the overproduction of HER2.

Karantza says she is grateful to have this support, "This award will allow us to explore the full process of autophagy and its impact on breast cancer progression and treatment. If we are able to identify certain tumor characteristics associated with the overexpression of HER2, we may have a better opportunity to develop more targeted therapies for breast cancer patients in the future."

The award period runs for two years.