Gayle Brinkenhoff Breast Cancer Symposium

Carol Fabian MD is a breast medical oncologist and director of the Breast Cancer Prevention Research Center and associated Laboratory at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.  

Her research focus is the testing of potential prevention interventions via assessment of their effects on imaging, blood, and benign breast tissue risk biomarkers.  She has been the principal investigator (PI) for multiple early phase prevention trials funded by the National Cancer Institute, Komen for the Cure, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.   

She currently heads a multi-center trial funded by an NCI R01 grant and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation which examines the possibility that the combination of the selective estrogen receptor modulator bazedoxifene and conjugated estrogens which is FDA approved for relief of vasomotor symptoms, might also reduce risk for breast cancer. Other current studies include assessment of tissue and imaging effects of acolbifene vs low dose tamoxifen in high- risk premenopausal women and tirzepatide (a GLP-1/GIP dual receptor agonist) in women with obesity. 

She co-leads the breast organ site for the University of Michigan Early Phase Prevention Consortia and is a long-standing faculty of City of Hope Intensive Genetics Course and School of Breast Oncology.  She has had held multiple national academic leadership roles including Chair of ASCO Prevention Committee, and Co-Chair SWOG Survivorship Committee and has held multiple research administrative roles in the University of Kansas Comprehensive Cancer Center.  

Kai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, where he is affiliated with the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, the UCI Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism and the U54-funded Center for Cancer Systems Biology. Kai received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Germany, and completed his postdoctoral training in Dr. Zena Werb’s lab at the UCSF. His lab is focused on how cells communicate and integrate signals from their local microenvironment during normal tissue homeostasis and cancer. They use an interdisciplinary approach combining single-cell genomics, bioinformatics together with functional cellular and molecular biology experiments to understand the role of the microenvironment during breast cancer initiation in unprecedented resolution. They have recently created the first single-cell census the cell types and states within the breast epithelium under normal homeostasis in human (Nat. Commun., 2018) and mouse (Cell Reports, 2020), which has started to serve as a reference to delineate how the breast microenvironment goes awry during breast cancer, for example through the emergence of immunosuppressive myeloid cells (Science Immunology, 2020). More recently, the lab has explored the precancerous changes in the human breast microenvironment of germline BRCA1 mutation carriers, which revealed distinct changes in stromal cell populations that drive breast cancer initiation through specific paracrine interactions (Nature Genetics, 2023). Kai is co-leader of the multi-institutional Human Breast Cell Atlas (funded by a Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative Seed Network), where they have generated a comprehensive spatially resolved atlas of the human breast (Nature, 2023), which here will serve as a reference to map out cellular changes occurring during breast cancer initiation and progression.

Dr. McAllister's lab group studies the role of aging and immune fitness in breast cancer control and response to therapy. Her group conducted the first pre-clinical trial to evaluate CDK4/6 inhibition combined with immune checkpoint blockade (Goel, DeCristo, et al., Nature, 2017). That work formed the rationale for a phase 1b clinical trial, which reported improved objective response rate over standard therapies for breast cancer patients. Based on their work to understand the effects of age on disease progression and response to immunotherapy (Marsh, et al., Cancer Research, 2016; Sceneay, Goreczny, et al., Cancer Discovery, 2019), she and her colleagues launched 3 clinical studies and formed the Older Women with Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Team. Their team is working toward developing therapies that will benefit the diversity of patients with breast cancer.   

Dr. McAllister received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and completed her Ph.D. studies in molecular and cellular biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She joined Robert Weinberg’s laboratory at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research as a postdoctoral fellow where she established new pre-clinical models to study breast cancer pathophysiology.  She joined the faculty of Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2009, and is also an affiliate member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and a Member of the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center.   

Dr. McAllister is an American Cancer Society Scholar, a recipient of the AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award, and a DOD Era of Hope Award Scholar. In 2012, President Obama presented her with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest early career honor bestowed by the U.S. Government.

Derek Radisky, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology at the Mayo Clinic, where he has been conducting cutting-edge research for over two decades. Dr. Radisky's extensive research experience is focused on the fundamental biology of the mammary gland, as well as the complex mechanisms that underlie the development of breast cancer.

One critical area of Dr. Radisky's research program is the investigation of inductive signals from the microenvironment that drive the progression of breast cancer, with a specific focus on matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). MMPs are a family of enzymes that are crucial for numerous physiological processes, but their inappropriate expression can contribute to the development of many diseases, including breast cancer. Dr. Radisky's work in this area uses physiologically relevant 3D cell culture assays, complex transgenic animal models, and investigations of tissue samples from human cohorts. These approaches enable the identification of specific MMPs that are involved in particular disease processes, and how best to target their negative effects for therapeutic benefit.

Dr. Radisky's research program also investigates the earliest stages of breast cancer development. Specifically, his team is analyzing a cohort of more than 20,000 women diagnosed with benign breast disease (BBD) at the Mayo Clinic. By utilizing transcriptional profiling and pathological observations, Dr. Radisky aims to identify specific features that are most associated with the progression to invasive cancer. This information is then used in combination with animal and cell culture models to develop novel approaches to target cancer-associated processes, ultimately aiming towards the goal of breast cancer prevention.

Dr. Radisky is a renowned figure in the field of breast cancer research, collaborating with scientists from around the world, including from the University of Barcelona, University of Florence, Karolinska Institute, University of Buenos Aires, Kyoto University, University of Hong Kong, and Queensland Institute of Technology, as well as with collaborators within the US and at the Mayo Clinic. His research has trained over 20 students and postdoctoral scientists who have gone on to successful careers in science and medicine.

Dr. Schedin’s research is focused on understanding the biology behind the high rates of metastasis observed in young women with breast cancer (YOBC). Her research has led to the recognition of postpartum breast cancer (PPBC) as a new subtype of highly metastatic disease. Current research efforts are focused on the prevention and improved treatment of PPBC.

Dr. Schedin is founder and co-director of the Early Career Advancement Program for OHSU Research Faculty, as well as founding member of the OHSU CIMER Mentoring Academy for Graduate Faculty. As co-director for the Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Dr. Schedin facilitated the transition leading to Comprehensive Cancer Center status for the Knight Cancer Institute. Prior to joining OHSU in 2014, Dr. Schedin was Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz, where she co-founded the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Translational Program with Dr. Virginia Borges, a first-of-its-kind program combining a YOBC clinic with translational research. Originally trained as a molecular developmental biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, followed by training in dietary breast cancer prevention at the AMC Cancer Research Institute in Denver, Colorado, Dr. Schedin collaborates widely with epidemiologists, oncologists, endocrinologists, chemists, immunologists, and tumor microenvironment to advance our understanding of YOBC.

Victoria Seewaldt, MD is an internationally recognized expert in early detection, the health science of disparities, and most recently the intersection of cancer, metabolic health and aging. As an investigator, Dr. Seewaldt leads a bench to community research program focusing on reducing cancer risk; most recently her work has focused on the link between metabolic dysregulation – specifically insulin resistance – breast cancer risk, and aging. To this end, Dr. Seewaldt led the first ALLIANCE precision prevention trial using metformin to improve metabolic health and reduce breast cancer risk. She also developed a highly diverse Southern California cohort to test the impact of health disparities and insulin-resistance on epigenetic damage and accelerated aging.The unique feature of Dr. Seewaldt’s program is that biomarkers identified in the laboratory can be immediately translated to develop novel pharmacologic agents and improve risk reduction strategies – particularly in Black/African American and Latina/Hispanic women. Dr. Seewaldt has been continuously funded by NCI since 2000. She was MPI of the P20 University of Riverside-City of Hope partnership planning grant that was recently funded as a full U54 Center Grant that aims to promote drug development and clinical trials at University of California, Riverside. Dr. Seewaldt also has an active P20 SPORE in Lung Cancer Disparities in Black and African American Individuals and a grant from Welcome Trust to use multi-omics to investigate the aggressive biology of triple negative breast cancer in Latinas and women of African descent. She has worked with 23 minority new faculty to help them develop successful independent NIH funding; to this end she was awarded the 2017 NIH/CAP/CURE Mentorship Award.

Dr. Tlsty, Ph.D., is a molecular pathologist and founding Director of the Program in Cell Cycling and Signaling in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco, CA. She received her Ph.D. from Washington University and trained at Stanford University before she was recruited to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and ultimately to UCSF where she is currently the Director of the Center for Translational Research in the Molecular Genetics of Cancer. She also serves as an Avon Scholar and Komen Scholar, studying breast cancer research. As a recipient of an Outstanding Investigator Award and Program Leader of a CRUK Grand Challenge Team she has extended her studies to include multiple metaplastic cancers such as esophageal adenocarcinoma, squamous lung cancer among others to understand stromal controls of cell plasticity and the role of cell state changes in the evolution of cancer. Dr. Tlsty studies genetic, epigenetic and functional changes involved in the earliest steps of cancer that provide novel insights into how early molecular events fuel cancer, tumor heterogeneity and evolution. Her group seeks to explore the role of tissue microenvironment in creating a pro-tumorigenic niche and how multiple factors integrate to control tumor initiation and progression. Her goal is to use these insights for early detection, disease stratification and novel approaches for prevention and treatment of cancer.

Dr. Tlsty’s work was the first to identify carcinoma-associated fibroblasts as a critical and dominant player in stromal controls of multiple epithelial cancers. Over the last 30 years she has worked extensively with human tissues to initiate models of early carcinogenesis that incorporate stromal signals. The model systems her group has developed, and the applied translational insights, are well suited for contributing to clinical utility. The work that identified molecular aspects of stromal-epithelial interactions that facilitate tumor progression in breast, prostate have now been extended to esophagus, stomach and lung. The breast studies enabled her group to develop a risk stratification test to predict which patients with DCIS are at high risk for developing future invasive breast cancer and identifying those who will benefit from adjuvant radiation therapy (marketed by Prelude). This test is now approved for Medicare and Medicaid as an Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Test and is being used worldwide. Her group has also identified cell-extrinsic consequences of epithelial stress that lead to the activation of pro-tumorigenic tissue phenotypes before tumor formation. One of the most profound phenotypes involves the activation of a multicellular stromal program shared by high mammographic density in human breast tissue and stromal tumor tissues and that is characterized by repression of the scavenger receptor CD36. She has a history of leading large, multi-investigator, multi-disciplinary studies, including recently a CRUK Grand Challenge team investigating links between chronic inflammation and cancer. This research focused on understanding the role of surrounding stromal cells in cancer development, potentially reprogramming these cells to prevent or reverse cancer progression. This work could lead to new methods for detecting and treating inflammation-related cancers and offer preventative options for high-risk patients with chronic inflammatory diseases.