Showing results for Breast Cancer Research

Michele Coté, PhD, is just getting started in her new role as the second director of the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. An internationally recognized molecular cancer epidemiologist and health disparities researcher, she began at IU on Sept. 1.

Research scientists and those with dependents were significantly impacted by COVID-19 – spending roughly 40 percent less time on studies. To address this challenge, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), through the support of the John Templeton Foundation, administered a grant called the “Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists” to extend research capacity among medical scientists who had experienced a surge in family caregiving and other research disruptions during the pandemic. Al Hassanein, MD, assistant professor of Surgery in the Division of Plastic Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine was among the grant recipients to receive a FRCS grant, which was facilitated by the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute at Indiana University to support junior investigators.

Community advocates are partnering with Indiana University School of Medicine to spread the word about the importance of including Black women in clinical research for breast cancer as researchers affiliated with the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research are studying how treatments can be tailored for people of different ethnicities to fight breast cancer more effectively and with fewer side effects. 

Jenny Larner Brown dreams of a day when no one would ever hear their oncologist say, "We're out of options." It's now been more than two years since Brown learned she had deadly Stage 4 triple negative breast cancer. She remains in remission today, thanks to her participation in an IU School of Medicine clinical trial called "Whac-a-Mole."

Natascia Marino, PhD, assistant research professor of medicine at IU School of Medicine and a research scientist with the Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center, is among the authors of a study published online in npj Breast Cancer. Dr. Marino said the study demonstrates the importance of conducting research on the “normal breast” and that she and her colleagues were surprised by the role fat plays in the development of breast cancer. 

Compared to white women, the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer is slightly lower for African Americans; however, the risk of dying from the disease is higher for African American women. For years, the medical community thought these disparities could be solely attributed to socioeconomic factors, but current research tells a much more complex story.

Story series begins with look at disparities in breast cancer research Pick up any book I own, and you’ll find countless notes in the margins of nearly every page. From cursive remarks stretching the length of chapters to brackets emphasizing paragraphs that made my heart skip a beat—my books are covered in moments captured in […]