14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at the Indiana University will soon begin a new investigation into the underlying molecular underpinning of breast cancer. Especially targeted will be an inflammatory, highly-invasive form of the disease, which currently produces a large number of victims among women, researcher say.
This relatively rare form of the condition could soon get a new cure, thanks to the recently-approved research efforts. Scientists at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center plan to expand and improve upon their unique tissue bank of normal breast tissue,.
They use the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank to compare samples stored there with tissues collected from tumors.
The achievement would allow for easy and immediate analysis of new samples. If a woman comes to the Center and gives a breast tissue sample for analysis, then investigators will be able to compare the batch of cells to reference tissue they have stored in the bank.
In charge of the new initiative are Indiana University professor Bryan Schneider, MD, and doctoral student Milan Radovich. The two will conduct the work with the support of a $50,000 grant from the Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Milburn Foundation partnership.
Using a cutting edge technology known as Next Generation Sequencing, the researchers will attempt to develop guidelines that will help oncologists compare abnormalities that appear in modified cells versus healthy breast tissue. Success in this endeavor could save the lives of many women worldwide.
“To identify the critical molecular changes that distinguish normal from malignant, and to detect the earliest indication of the transformation, researchers must be able to study normal breast cells,” explains Dr. Schneider, who received the IBC grant.
“Since 2005, hundreds of women have donated tissue to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank ® at the IU Simon Cancer Center to make it possible for researchers to identify abnormalities in cells. We are hopeful that the information contained in the Bank will direct scientists to cures for the many forms of breast cancer,” he goes on to say.
He adds that the Komen Tissue Bank is most likely the only facility in the United States to contain normal breast tissue, blood and DNA samples collected from the general population. Schneider is a researcher and clinician at the IU Simon Cancer Center.
“It is our goal to provide new and advancing information about inflammatory breast cancer,” says the expert, who is also an Indiana University School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine. The research could result in the development of new, advanced drugs aimed at rare forms of breast cancer.
“In the past we have had to react. We hope this research will inform us on ways to take proactive measures and provide insight on fundamental weaknesses in the disease that may be exploited for successful therapeutics,” Schneider concludes.