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2004 Research Grants Dedicated in loving memory of
COL-3 and Letrozole as Combined Therapy for Breast Cancer
Breast cancer remains the most common cancer occurring in women. With continuous improvement in breast imaging such as better mammography and MRI, many breast cancers are being detected earlier and in many cases allow for a better prognosis. Unfortunately, breast cancer can be unpredictable. Small tumors and cancers where no lymph nodes were involved often recur years later elsewhere in the body.
Cancer cells have special ability to invade through the ducts of the breast, thus allowing them to spread to other places in the body. There are many drugs that fight breast cancer once it has spread. The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY, Inc., through a $50,000 grant will support research using a drug that seems to block the ability of cancer cells to spread to more dangerous sites, i.e. bone, liver and lung. This drug (COL-3 – a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor) will be given alone and in combination with another known breast cancer drug (letrozole – an estrogen-reducing drug). If successful in decreasing the spread of cancer in animals, future studies will consider clinical trials for patient use.
Dedicated in loving memory of
The Genetic Basis of Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer
We are puzzled by the way that anti-cancer drugs kill cancer cells. An important feature of cancer cells is that they live longer and resist death better than normal cells. Surprisingly, they are often killed more easiliy by exposure to radiation or to certain drugs. We have some preliminary data that suggests an explanation – that breast cancer cells are pre-disposed to die more easily than normal cells, but that there is a second abnormality that interrupts this predisposition. If that is correct, then anti-cancer drugs are functioning by blocking this second abnormality.
The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY, Inc., through a $50,000 grant, will allow investigators to look at the genes that are active in breast cancer cells and normal cells, and determine the important changes that are induced by chemotherapeutic rugs. This project will improve the understanding of how cancer therapy works, as well as help in the development of new treatments.
Dedicated in loving memory of
Dedicated Imaging System
Animal models represent a critical tool for studying the biology of cancer. Recent advances in imaging technology now make it possible to detect and quantify the growth of a few hundred tumor cells within the living animal. The basis of this imaging technique is the detection for cells that have been tagged with a light-emitting marker (luciferase, which is the molecule responsible for making fireflies glow in the dark).
The $50,000 grant from the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY., Inc. enables researchers to visualize and quantify the tagged cells in a live animal, to study all aspects of tumor growth and, in particular, to screen new experimental therapies for cancer. Four active breast cancer projects including one from the Department of Surgery, benefit from this grant. |
