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UNC Lineberger members Lisa Carey, MD, Chuck Perou, PhD, Hyman Muss, MD, Carey Anders, MD, and Katherine Hoadley, PhD will present at leading breast cancer research symposium.

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UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members will present at the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium this week. The symposium, held Dec. 9-13 in San Antonio, Texas, provides an opportunity for the world’s leading physicians and researchers to exchange ideas and learn about advances in understanding and treating breast cancer.

Lisa Carey, MD, Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research, will participate in a panel on “Balancing Research and Clinical Practice.” Dr. Carey conducts extensive research into the subtypes of breast cancer and the effectiveness of chemotherapy while also seeing patients in her roles as the Medical Director of the UNC Breast Center, the Chief of Hematology/Oncology, and the Physician-in-Chief of the UNC North Carolina Cancer Hospital.

Charles Perou, PhD, May Goldman Shaw Distinguished Professor of Molecular Oncology and Professor of Genetics, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, will be co-discussant on the poster “Impact of tumor-infiltrating B-cell clonal diversity on response to neoadjuvant therapy in triple negative and HER2+ breast cancer treated on CALGB (Alliance) 40601 and 40603.” Dr. Perou’s advances in understanding the genomics of breast cancer have revised the clinical understanding of the disease.

Katherine Hoadley, PhD, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics, will present “Mutational analysis of CALGB 40601 (Alliance), a neoadjuvant phase III trial of weekly paclitaxel (T) and trastuzumab (H) with or without lapatinib (L) for HER2-positive breast cancer.” This presentation looks at the mutation status of nine genes and correlates the mutational status of the genes with response to HER2-targeting drugs. Recently, Dr. Hoadley and Dr. Perou helped lead the largest, most diverse tumor genetic analysis ever conducted. This study revealed a new approach to classifying cancers and could have a profound impact on the future landscape of cancer diagnosis, treatment and drug development.

Carey Anders, MD, Assistant Professor in the UNC School of Medicine, will present “Phase 1/2a study of glutathione PEGylated liposomal doxorubin (2B3-101) in breast cancer patients with brain metastases.” This poster, coauthored by Dr. Anders reports results of a phase II study of a novel anthracycline encapsulated in a liposome that crosses the blood brain barrier. UNC Lineberger was the only U.S. site for this study. She will also deliver a talk on “How to Get the Most Out of Your Fellowship Years.” Dr. Anders treats patients and researches treatments for brain metastases linked to breast cancer as part of her work with the UNC Breast Center.

Hyman B. Muss, MD, Professor in the UNC School of Medicine, will present the poster “p16INK4a Expression and Chemotherapy Toxicity in Women with Early Stage Breast Cancer.” He is also co-author on two other posters being presented at this year’s symposium: “Association of patient preference for adjuvant chemotherapy (chemo) at baseline (BL) with toxicity, mental health, function, quality of life (QoL) and survival in older women with early stage breast cancer (ESBC) [CALGB 49907 Alliance]” and “Risk of infectious complications in breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab: a meta-analysis.”

UNC Lineberger members are also co-authors on additional posters being presented at the symposium. Drs. Hoadley, Carey and Perou are co-authors of “Impact of intrinsic subtype by PAM50 and other gene signatures on pathologic complete response (pCR) rates in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) +/- carboplatin (Cb) or bevacizumab (Bev): CALGB 40603/150709 (Alliance).” Drs. Hoadley and Perou are co-authors of “Comprehensive molecular characterization of invasive lobular breast tumors.”

The annual San Antonio symposium provides physicians and researchers a platform to share state-of-the-art information on the experimental biology, etiology, prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of breast cancer and premalignant breast disease with an international audience of academic and private physicians and researchers.