Chapel Hill, NC - Melissa Troester, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, was awarded a two-year $300,000 grant from the Avon Foundation. Troester, a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, will lead a study titled “Characterizing Variation in Breast Cancer Microenvironment.” Her co-investigator is Keith Amos, MD, assistant professor of surgery and a UNC Lineberger faculty member.

They are working to better understand the biology of normal tissue adjacent to breast tumor and how it changes with age. New knowledge could help to identify treatment strategies and could help to explain why some breast conservation surgeries, particularly among young women, more commonly result in disease recurrence.

L-R: Marc Hurlbert, PhD, Director, Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade, Melissa Troester, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and Eloise Caggiano, Program Director, Avon Walk for Breast Cancer