Boosting pre-surgery treatment to prevent breast cancer from returning
Research Project 1: Enhancing neoadjuvant therapy to prevent breast cancer recurrence
This project tries targeted drugs plus pre-surgery chemotherapy and computer-guided predictions to help people with triple-negative breast cancer, including Black and Hispanic women, reduce hidden cancer and lower the chance of relapse.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Utah State Higher Education System--University of Utah NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Salt Lake City, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11177949 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers are adding targeted drugs to standard pre-surgery (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy to try to eliminate minimal residual disease before surgery. They use patient-derived tumor grafts (PDX) and computer-based signatures that predict how tumors respond to carboplatin and taxane chemotherapy to find combinations that give complete responses. The team is focusing on triple-negative breast cancer and on tumors from African American and Hispanic patients because these groups often have worse outcomes. Promising combinations would be candidates for future clinical trials and could help tailor therapy by predicting who will benefit.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with triple-negative breast cancer receiving or planned for pre-surgery (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy, especially African American and Hispanic patients, are the main population this work aims to help.
Not a fit: Patients with other breast cancer subtypes (hormone-receptor–positive or HER2-positive) or those not getting pre-surgery chemotherapy are unlikely to benefit directly from these findings.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lower recurrence rates after pre-surgery chemotherapy and may allow some patients to avoid or reduce toxic systemic chemotherapy.
How similar studies have performed: Some trials have shown that adding targeted drugs or carboplatin can improve pre-surgery response in triple-negative breast cancer, but using PDX models and computational response signatures together to guide combinations is a newer approach.
Where this research is happening
Salt Lake City, United States
- Utah State Higher Education System--University of Utah — Salt Lake City, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Lewis, Michael T. — Utah State Higher Education System--University of Utah
- Study coordinator: Lewis, Michael T.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.