Led by PhD student Neil Carleton and senior authors Adrian Lee, Priscilla McAuliffe, and Steffi Oesterreich, we review key considerations for “right-sizing” therapy options for older women with ER+ breast cancer. With contributions from radiation, pathology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, and medical oncology from the UPMC / Magee Women’s Hospital breast cancer group, this collaborative effort touches on optimizing quality of life along with new translational studies that may impact future treatment of these patients.
Led by Neil Carleton with significant contributions from others in the lab (Osama Shah & Fangyuan (Chelsea) Chen), we studied trends of use of two interventions, sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and radiation therapy (RT), in elderly women with ER+, clinically node-negative breast cancer. Despite two national guidelines recommending against their use, trends of use by surgical oncologists and radiation oncologists remain quite high. We used propensity score matching to control for confounding and biases in retrospective analysis. Significantly, we found that omitting either SLNB or RT was a feasible approach to care and did not compromise recurrence free survival. Our results bolster the existing clinical guidelines recommending for de-implementation of these interventions.
This was a highly collaborative projects with input from authors in biostatistics, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, medical oncology, and specialists in women’s cancer.
Excitingly, this paper received quite a bit of attention in the media and in the field at large! We were thrilled to see Dr. Lee appear on multiple local TV news stations and Dr. McAuliffe making a number of radio appearances!
Abstract. BACKGROUND:
Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is a histological subtype of breast cancer
with distinct molecular and clinical features from the more common subtype
invasive lobular carcinoma (IDC).www.biorxiv.org
We provide evidence that loss of E-cadherin hyperactivates the IGF1R pathway and increases sensitivity to IGF1R/InsR targeted therapy, thus identifying the IGF1R pathway as a potential novel target in E-cadherin–deficient breast cancers such as invasive lobular cancer.
Congratulation Dr. Nilgun Tasdemir and coauthors for their new publication generating an invaluable resource for lobular breast cancer research. Comprehensive characterization of ILC models.
Our latest paper focused on lobular breast cancer is now available. Role for SREBP1 and other regulators of fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis in invasive lobular breast cancer.