Research team secures funding to advance breast cancer care
Associate Professor Nikki Verrills and Dr Severine Roselli have secured funding from the National Breast Cancer Foundation to explore a new therapeutic approach for treatment-resistant breast cancer.
Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer is the most diagnosed breast cancer subtype and accounts for around 80 percent of all breast cancers. While standard therapy (which involves endocrine therapy) is beneficial for most patients, around 30 percent are resistant to treatment, which can lead to metastatic disease - the primary cause of breast cancer mortality.
Associate Professor Verrills and her research team discovered that estrogen receptor positive breast tumours that are resistant to endocrine therapy have low levels of a protein called PP2A. A medication currently used for the treatment of different disease is known to increase the activity of PP2A.
With nearly $290,000 in new funding from the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the University of Newcastle research team will examine whether this medication can be repurposed to treat resistant estrogen receptor positive breast cancer and improve outcomes for people living with the disease.
The University of Newcastle research project is one of 19 to receive a combined investment of $13.5 million from the Foundation in its latest funding round to help achieve its vision of zero deaths from breast cancer.
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