SAN ANTONIO (December 1, 2014) — Each year in the second week of December, thousands of breast cancer experts and advocates from across the globe gather in San Antonio to hear about the latest research at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

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.

With a total estimated economic impact of $19 million, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium brings about 7,500 experts together to delve into information on everything from promising new triple-negative breast cancer treatments to the rising – and controversial – numbers of prophylactic mastectomies.

“Even as treatments improve and the rate of breast cancer recurrence is decreasing, women are increasingly choosing to have the healthy breast removed at the same time as the one with cancer,” said Ismail Jatoi, M.D., Ph.D., chief of surgical oncology at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio and a symposium co-director. “This is a perplexing trend.”

Several CTRC researches will be presenting new information based on their research and can be scheduled for advance interviews on the symposium, including Dr. Jatoi on prophylactic mastectomies; Andrew Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., CTRC oncologist, on the new research linking obesity and chemotherapy resistance in some breast cancers; and Virginia Kaklamani, M.D., CTRC Breast Center director, on figuring out more types of breast cancers that can be targeted with a promising new class of drugs.

Speakers this year include Mary-Claire King, Ph.D., who demonstrated that a single gene, BRCA1, was responsible for breast and ovarian cancer in many families. Her discovery of BRCA1 revolutionized the study of numerous other common inherited diseases, and was made into the 2013 film Decoding Annie Parker, starring Helen Hunt.

Reporters who wish to attend the symposium can pre-register here and learn more about upcoming press conferences, speakers and press room access.

 

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.

SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 24, 2014) — Bandana Chatterjee, Ph.D., who has conducted almost a quarter-century of prostate cancer research in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is a new Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the AAAS announced today.

Dr. Chatterjee is a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine. “Dr. Chatterjee has been a very dedicated scientist for the past 25 years in this area of research, prostate cancer,” said her nominator, Tim Huang, Ph.D., professor and chairman of molecular medicine at the Health Science Center and deputy director of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center (CTRC) at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

“Her work has identified potential molecular targets for treatment,” Dr. Huang said. “She characterized a new aspect in the male hormone androgen’s biosynthesis in the prostate, a pathway that is important for development of advanced prostate cancer. Dr. Chatterjee has shown that an enzyme in this pathway is lost in human prostate cancer, and this loss is linked to increased cancer cell growth. Her work has identified potential molecular targets for treatment.”

Dr. Chatterjee has also served as a mentor and role model for the next generation of female scientists, Dr. Huang added.

Dr. Chatterjee, a native of India, received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry at the University of Calcutta. In 1977 she completed and received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and then served as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular endocrinology at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.

Her research has been consistently supported by federal grants and she has been a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Research Career Scientist since 1999. This designation has been competitively renewed three times, the last time in 2013. She has enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the South Texas Veterans Health Care System as well as the Health Science Center.

“I’m grateful to all my students and fellows,” Dr. Chatterjee said. “This honor is shared with them. I am especially grateful to Dr. Chung Song, who is my longtime collaborator, for his scientific insights and unwavering support of our research goals.”

Dr. Chatterjee and the other new AAAS Fellows will be recognized at the induction ceremony Feb. 14 in San Jose, Calif.

The notification letter about her election states that this honor is “For distinguished contributions to the field of molecular endocrinology, especially in the development of novel approaches for the treatment of prostate cancer.”

 

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.

SAN ANTONIO (November 20, 2014) — Two Cancer Therapy & Research Center scientists are leaders on $3.99 million in grants from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas that will help them develop next-generation breast cancer treatment drugs.

Rong Li, Ph.D., professor of molecular medicine, is principal investigator on a proposal that will both harness an existing drug for hot flashes that has potential anti-tumor activity, and create other agents that will help it work with greater precision.

“It balances feasibility and innovation,” Dr. Li said.

Ratna Vadlamudi, Ph.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, is leading a proposal to develop an innovative breast cancer drug that potentially could prevent the development of drug resistance in breast cancers.

“This funding will help us develop these first-in-class cancer therapy drugs that address the critical need of targeting therapy resistance and metastasis of breast cancer,” Dr. Vadlamudi said.

“Huzzah!” said Ian M. Thompson Jr., M.D., CTRC director. “This is a tangible confirmation of the exceptional merit of the science and clinical care provided by our CTRC scientists and physicians.”

Also collaborating on the two grants are scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio — through the two institutions’ shared Center for Innovation in Drug Discovery — and UT Southwestern Medical Center and The University of Texas at Dallas.

In Dr. Li’s work, two different receptors drive estrogen activity – Estrogen Receptor alpha and Estrogen Receptor beta. Much more is known about ER alpha, while Dr. Li calls ER beta the “Cinderella sister.”

“It has a lot of similar characteristics, but in many cases it behaves in the opposite manner,” he said. “And in many cases – unlike ER alpha – it inhibits tumor growth.”

Because ER beta is present in as many as half of all breast cancer cases, scientists want to tap its tumor-suppressing activity.

A drug being developed by pharmaceutical company Ausio to treat menopause-related symptoms has already been tested enough to be proven clinically safe. One of its characteristics happens to be that it turns on the ER beta switch. Through an agreement with Ausio, the CTRC will be able to test this drug in combination with agents being developed at the Health Science Center.

“The novel part of this work is that we’ve discovered how to turn on the ER beta function – and also how to inhibit the process that turns it off,” Dr. Li said. “This proposal seeks synergy among these three approaches that might maximize the anti-tumor activity of ER beta.”

Dr. Vadlamudi’s proposal focuses on the mechanisms in treatment-resistant cells. The majority of breast cancers grow in response to the hormone estrogen, and therapies involve treating them with antiestrogens or aromatase inhibitors. But many patients, after an initial response, develop resistance to these drugs. Their tumors will mutate or modify an estrogen receptor (ESR1) and continue to develop by ESR1-driven pathways.

Dr. Vadlamudi and his team have designed a small-molecule drug called ECBI (ESR1 coregulator binding inhibitor) that has the potential to block multiple oncogenic pathways that occur in resistant cells, in that way preventing the development of drug resistance. The ECBI also potentially has fewer side effects and could delay the need to begin chemotherapy treatments that are much harder on the patient.

The CPRIT grant will allow researchers to take the next steps in the laboratory necessary to get the drug ready for clinical trials in patients. Both grants are early translational research awards.

Dr. Vadlamudi’s team includes Rajeshwar Rao Tekmal, PhD, of the Health Science Center, Ganesh Raj, M.D., PhD, of UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Jung Mo Ahn, PhD, of The University of Texas at Dallas.

Co-principal investigator on Dr. Li’s grant is Stanton McHardy, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and medicinal chemistry core director at the Center for Innovation in Drug Discovery, a collaboration of the Health Science Center and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and associate professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Also working on the proposal are Steven Weitman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Institute for Drug Development at the CTRC; John Kuhn, PharmD, professor of translational oncology at the UT College of Pharmacy and the UT Health Science Center and senior research director for the CTRC’s Institute of Drug Development; Matthew Hart, Ph.D., the CIDD high-throughput screening director from the UT Health Science Center; and Richard Elledge, M.D., CTRC oncologist.

 

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.