SAN ANTONIO (December 11, 2014) — A still-experimental class of drugs called PARP inhibitors has shown promise in BRCA-positive patients. They could help more people still – but it will take a medical detective to figure out who.
Virginia Kaklamani, M.D., director of the breast cancer program at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the UT Health Science Center, is leading a study here that will focus on PARP inhibitors and which types of breast cancer they can treat.
“These drugs are a lot more useful for a lot more patients,” Dr. Kaklamani said. “We just have to figure out which ones.”
Kaklamani is presenting the study in a poster at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, where all week the best new information in the world on fighting breast cancer is being revealed to an international gathering of more than 7,000 oncologists, researchers and advocates.
To gather the most relevant information possible, Dr. Kaklamani’s team is working with other top research sites, including Northwestern University, University of Wisconsin and Emory University. Participation in the study will be simple, as the researchers can work with biopsy samples that will be taken in the normal course of diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Kaklamani and a patient will be available for interviews.
The 37th annual SABCS is presented by the Cancer Therapy & Research Center at the UT Health Science Center, the American Association for Cancer Research and Baylor College of Medicine and this year runs from Dec. 9-13 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 13 percent of academic institutions receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced more than 31,000 graduates. The $787.7 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.