Dr. Oesterreich was honored and excited to join The Cancer Genome Atlas Network (TCGA) working group performing the largest to date comprehensive molecular analysis of ILC. This landmark paper provided a comprehensive molecular portrait of ILC, highlighting distinct genomic and transcriptomic features compared to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Dr. Oesterreich contributed key expertise in lobular biology, ensuring that ILC was well represented within TCGA analyses, reflecting a major collaborative effort among over 50 institutions. The study showed that 95% of ILC cases had alterations in CDH1, that there were differences in mutations frequency (for example in PTEN, AKT, FOXA1 and TBX3), and that there are molecular variants within ILC. The conclusion was that “ILC is a clinically and molecularly distinct disease”.
This foundational study established that invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) cell lines exhibit unique estrogen-mediated transcriptional programs and distinct tamoxifen responses compared to ductal models. Led by Dr. Matthew Sikora during his postdoctoral training in the Oesterreich–Lee laboratory, the work included collaborations with multiple Pitt faculty and collaborators such as Dr. Alana Welm (Utah), providing the first systematic evidence for differential estrogen signaling in ILC. Dr. Sikora is now Associate Professor at UC and is continuing work on ILC.
Breast cancer science duo Steffi Oesterreich, PhD & Adrian Lee, PhD recruited to Pittsburgh from Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Oesterreich is again a member of the ILCS Organizing Committee, and as such helps to organize the 2024 ILCS in Leuven, Belgium.
Dr. Oesterreich, several members of the Lee-Oesterreich Lab, and future ILC Program of Excellence team member Dr. Priscilla McAuliffe join the 2023 ILC Symposium Organizing Committee, helping organize and run the 2023 ILCS, which returns to Pittsburgh, PA.”
Due to Covid restrictions, we held the 2021 ILC Symposium (originally planned for Pittsburgh) virtually. Dr. Steffi Oesterreich worked with Drs. Otto Metzger, Christine Desmedt, and Patrick Derksen on the organization of the symposium which was a great success with more than 700 attendees from 36 countries.
Dr. Oesterreich chaired the 1st International ILC Symposium held in Pittsburgh. We had approximately 130 attendees – physicians, researchers and patient advocates. This started a tradition of annual ILC Symposia, alternating in location between the US and Europe. This is where Dr. Oesterreich met Leigh Pate.
Dr. Oesterreich is member of the ILCS Organizing Committee, along with Drs. Derksen, Desmedt, Salomon, Metzger, and Koorman, and as such helps to organize the 2022 ILCS in Utrecht, Netherlands.