Timeline Stories Archives - Lee/Oesterreich Laboratory

ILC Educational Session at the 48th SABCS in December 2025

Drs. Oesterreich and Kok (NKI) moderated an ILC session with exciting presentations by Drs. Vincent-Salomon, Metzger, Sotiriou, and Aftimos, as well as critical contributions from patient advocate Flora Migyanka. More details here: https://www.sabcsmeetingnews.org/special-session-amplifies-dialogue-on-lobular-breast-cancer/

Also, our team was proud to receive four LBCA Research Abstract Merit Awards for our ILC Posters presented at 2025 SABCS (Abdalla Wedn, Hannah Maynard, and Drs. Julia Foldi and Steffi Oesterreich).

Best Poster at ESMO 2025

On behalf of a large collaborative group of TBCRC investigators, as well as additional scientists working on the correlative studies, Dr. Oesterreich presented the ILC window trial (TBCRC037) at ESMO in Berlin. And we were happy that it won a BEST POSTER prize!

Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer (ILC) Think Tank, October 27-28, 2025

The ILC Think Tank, attended by 46 participants including 12 BCRF-funded investigators and held adjacent to the NYC BCRF meeting in October 2025, was considered highly successful, with its discussion-focused format fostering transparent and constructive dialogue on a number of critical topics including potential clinical trial targets and pathways. Three key proposals emerged from the meeting: forming a US-based ILC research working group, establishing an international ILC Association to strengthen collaboration with pharmaceutical partners, and identifying one or two urgent but achievable unmet needs that all attendees, or smaller subgroups, could address as a collaborative initiative.

Important ILC Research: “Is the Choosing Wisely Recommendation for Omission of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Applicable for Invasive Lobular Carcinoma?”

In older women (≥70) with early-stage ER+ invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), omitting sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was not associated with increased recurrence or worse locoregional recurrence-free survival compared to those who underwent SLNB, even though ILC patients presented with larger, higher-stage tumors. These findings support extending the Choosing Wisely recommendation to omit SLNB to patients with ILC, though larger studies and ongoing trials (SOUND, INSEMA) are needed to validate this conclusion.

Dr George Tseng, Professor in Biostatistics a UPitt, is a critical component of the Pittsburgh ILC Program of Excellence. His studies for testing congruence of ILC models with ILC clinical samples are critical for ILC research. For example, CASCAM (Congruence Analysis and Selection of Cancer Models) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38198519/, helps to identify cell lines most representative for ILC research. He subsequently obtained an R01 grant (MPI with Dr. Adrian Lee) on “Single-cell congruence evaluation and selection of cancer models towards precision medicine”.

First Celebration of Life event for families of patients enrolled in the Hope for OTHERS program

We held our first Celebration of Life event for families of patients enrolled in the Hope for OTHERS program, a rapid autopsy initiative designed to advance our understanding of treatment resistance and metastatic disease (described in https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40537829/). The success of the Hope for OTHERS program depends on key team members including Lori Miller, our clinical coordinator; Alex Chang, an MSTP student serving as our research coordinator; and dedicated patient advocates Christine Desmedt, Stephanie Walker, and Lori Livingston. Through the Hope for OTHERS program, we are collaborating with the UPTIDER program at KU Leuven, led by Dr. Christine Desmedt, to improve our understanding of metastatic ILC. A first combined manuscript is under review (Zels et al: Clinical and histopathological characterization of metastatic lobular breast cancer: lessons learned from post-mortem tissue donation programs).

Start of monthly ILC seminars through the Great Lakes Breast Cancer ILC Consortium.

LBCA meeting in Cleveland

More LBCA meetings happened in which Dr. Steffi Oesterreich was happy to brainstorm with ILC patient advocates on best ways to get ILC to the forefront in research, clinical trials, meetings, education and more. Photo is taken at brainstorming session at Cleveland Clinic, organized by ILC Advocate Susan McDonald. Some of the ideas laid the foundation for the subsequent publication entitled Important “How Researchers, Clinicians and Patient Advocates Can Accelerate Lobular Breast Cancer Research” by Leigh Pate et al.

Northwest Metastatic Breast Cancer Conference in Seattle

A breakout session at NWMBCC (hosted by Susan G. Komen Puget Sound) in which Dr. Steffi Oesterreich, Dr. Hannah Linden, and Leigh Pate discuss unique aspects of ILC (and a similar session). LBCA members discuss next steps for the organization, and Leigh Pate received the Beth Caldwell Advocacy and Leadership Award.

LBCA at SABCS 2017

We had our first LBCA meeting, and LBCA poster at SABCS in 2017. Many patients with ILC became highly motivated and committed ILC advocates and spent countless hours working with Leigh Pate and Lori Petitti and others to get ILC advocacy off the ground.