GRAND RAPIDS – Van Andel Research Institute is part of a team of Michigan researchers awarded a $3.5 million grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure to study cancer stem cells in an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that disproportionately affects African-Americans.

The study is a collaborative effort between several leading research centers in the state utilizing the expertise of oncologists and basic research scientists, and led by teams from University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, and VARI in Grand Rapids. The project also includes the key participation of VARI?s affiliate, the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) of Phoenix, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Studies show 209,060 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,230 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Komen Foundation recently called for proposals from teams of physicians and scientists called Promise Grants, multi-million dollar, multi-year, collaborative grants aimed at answering the most difficult questions in breast cancer and translating their findings into outcomes that will impact patient care. Only three teams were selected for funding for this highly competitive program.

Three specific biomarkers that are used to determine breast cancer treatment are missing in so-called triple-negative breast cancer. The most successful treatment advances in breast cancer have targeted these three markers, so these therapies are not effective in the triple-negative subtype. Among women with breast cancer, this subtype represents about 15 percent of diagnoses in Caucasian American women, 26 percent in African American women and 82 percent in African women.

?We urgently need to develop novel approaches to treat triple-negative breast cancer in order to reduce racial disparities. Through this Komen grant, we propose to develop novel therapies capable of attacking and destroying the lethal seeds driving these cancers, the cancer stem cells,? says principal investigator Max S. Wicha, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Oncology and director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

?If the cancer stem cell model is correct, then the successful targeting of this cell population should result in significantly improved outcome for women with breast cancer,? Dr. Wicha said.

Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that are believed to fuel the tumor?s growth and spread. Wicha and colleagues were the first to identify cancer stem cells in solid tumors, finding them in breast cancer tissue in 2003.

Researchers believe traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatments often become ineffective because they do not kill the cancer stem cells, and that the key to future treatments is to develop drugs that target and kill these cells. Research suggests that triple-negative breast cancers have a higher proportion of cancer stem cells.

The grant proposal includes studying tumor cells from African and African-American women to look for molecular differences in triple-negative tumors. Laboratory research will look at whether targeting the breast cancer stem cells has an impact on these tumors.

The researchers also plan to launch at least three phase I clinical trials to investigate new treatments that target cancer stem cells. Based on the results of these trials, a larger randomized clinical trial will be planned.

?This is a great picture of the state of Michigan leveraging its scientific and clinical resources,? says Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D. President and Research Director of VARI and TGen, which will provide genetic analysis of the study. ?It places us at the vanguard of treatments that are aimed at the most deadly form of human breast cancer in a highly vulnerable patient population.?

Dr. Trent and Dr. Wicha will serve with Patricia LoRusso, D.O., Professor of Medicine at Karmanos, as principal investigators on the grant.

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