PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The PA Breast Cancer Coalition has awarded two Thomas Jefferson University researchers with $100,000 dollar grants to advance groundbreaking work in triple-negative breast cancer and immunotherapy.
Dr. Zachary Schug is studying how the metabolism of breast cancer cells and immune cells regulate tumor immunity, and Dr. Christine Eischen’s research is focused on triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. Her team recently discovered a new vulnerability in treatment.
“We have made a discovery recently in targeting a specific protein inside of breast cancer cells, and then, working with the medicinal chemist, we have a compound now that can target that protein and destroy it,” she explained.
Triple-negative breast cancer is difficult to treat, as the tumors lack any of the three receptors commonly responsive to treatment.
“With triple-negative, people frequently get a reoccurrence of breast cancer shortly after treatment, and that moves them into what's called the metastatic stage, which is stage four, and then they're in treatment for the rest of their life,” said Pat Halpin-Murphy, president and founder of the PA Breast Cancer Coalition.
“It's just devastating, and both of these research grants will touch on that.”
The grant money is generated from Pennsylvanians that opted to donate $5 to breast cancer research through driver’s license and vehicle registration renewals as well as state tax refunds.
“We give every penny of it, every single penny of it goes to the researchers who are helping us to improve ways to treat breast cancer and eventually prevent it from spreading,” said Halpin-Murphy.
“Our goal is to help find a cure for breast cancer now so that our daughters won't have to.”