ICRF Scientists Focus on Breast Cancer Research |
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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. ICRF is currently supporting nine cancer research projects in this area. A few of the newly-funded projects are featured below: |
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Aviad Ben-Shmuel, PhD, the recipient of an ICRF Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, is working in the laboratory of a mentor who specializes in the investigation and characterization of Cancer Associated Fibroblasts (CAFs). Natural Killer (NK) cells are the front line of immune defense against cancer growth and metastasis. The goal of this research project is to understand how specific CAF subtypes repress the activity of NK cells in breast cancer.
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Michael Elkin, PhD, the recipient of an ICRF Project Grant at Hadassah Medical Organization, is studying the link between obesity and breast cancer. Obesity is associated with metabolic endotoxemia - the chronic presence of extremely low, but biologically significant, levels of bacterial endotoxin. Dr. Elkin believes that the continued presence of subclinical levels of bacterial endotoxin aids in the formation of breast cancer cells. His team will test this hypothesis, using newly-established experimental tools, in animal models and clinical samples. |
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Yael Mardor, PhD, the recipient of an ICRF Acceleration Grant at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, is researching breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain. Herceptin® is a drug that specifically targets breast cancer cells that carry high levels of the HER-2 protein. It can control breast cancer that has metastasized anywhere in the body except the brain, where the blood brain barrier (or BBB) inhibits access. The Mardor team has pioneered a safe and non-invasive approach for disrupting the BBB with short, repeated electrical field treatments, and will use this method to develop a platform that causes transient disruption of the BBB to permit efficient delivery of Herceptin® to the brain. |
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Shlomit Strulov Shachar, MD, the second recipient of a Career Development Award, co-funded by ICRF and Conquer Cancer (The ASCO Foundation) at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, is focusing on Estrogen Receptor-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer (or ER+MBC). Most ER+MBC patients respond to first-line treatment, but then drug resistance develops. Two additional drugs are given as second-line treatment, but the optimal time sequence in delivering them and whether there is any benefit in taking both drugs is unknown. The Shachar team will study the responses to these drugs, in order to determine if treatment with the second drug is warranted and to avoid an unnecessary toxicity burden to ER+MBC patients. |
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Breast cancer is the second most deadly cancer in the U.S., after lung cancer. Breast cancer (and ovarian cancer) is more common among Ashkenazi Jewish women than among other women. Ashkenazi Jews are ten times more likely to have a BRCA gene mutation.
- In 2021, it is estimated that among women in the U.S., there will be more than 281,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer, 49,290 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (a non-invasive breast cancer), and 43,600 breast cancer deaths. Rates of breast cancer incidence and mortality are much lower among men than women: 1.3 cases per 100,000 and 0.3 deaths per 100,000.
- Breast cancer treatment plans may include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy.
- About one-third of all breast cancer cases are preventable by adopting healthy habits such as maintaining optimum weight, exercising, refraining from smoking and alcohol consumption. Simultaneously, breast exams, according to age-based guidelines and genetic history, are important in mitigating the disease.
Source: Susan G. Komen
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A new approach to breast cancer treatment, without chemotherapy and its accompanying side effects, was recently covered in The New York Times. Read the article here.
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Prof. Ariel Munitz's Research Receives International Media Recognition |
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Research conducted by Professor Ariel Munitz and PhD student Sharon Grisaru has been widely covered in medical journals. The research was funded by ICRF (Israel Cancer Research Fund), the Israel Cancer Association, ISF (the Israel Science Foundation) BSF (U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation) and GlaxoSmithKline.
Professor Munitz, who is currently directing one of the largest COVID-19 testing laboratories in Israel, conducting more than twenty thousand tests per day, recently discussed his work with ICRF.
We are fascinated by your work on the role of eosinophils in metastases. Can you elaborate?
Innovation invariably has its roots in novel ideas, ideas that often emerge as insights from knowing how something that is learned in one setting can be applied in another. When I was recruited to Tel Aviv University, my laboratory was focused on studying blood cells that were critical in mediating the response of individuals to environmental allergens. Asthma, perhaps the best known of such diseases, results from inflammation in the lungs resulting from air-borne allergens, a response that is sometimes mediated by a specific cell type found in our blood, eosinophils. It was known that eosinophils caused inflammation, substantial damage to multiple cell types in the body, and were sometimes found to have infiltrated tumors. My lab reasoned that there might be a role for inflammation caused by eosinophils in either exacerbating cancer at the site of the tumor or inhibiting cancer by causing the death of cancer cells. To initiate the study of eosinophils in cancer, I conducted an analysis of ~3000 tumors from different sites in the body. Epithelial tissues form the lining of all the body’s cavities such as the mouth, intestines, and lungs and this initial survey revealed that tumors arising in epithelial tissues of many different organs were characterized with marked eosinophil infiltration.
Because my lab had a longstanding interest in lung biology as a result of our studies of allergic disease and because lung cancer, and metastasis to the lung from tumors around the body, is a major problem in cancer medicine, we decided to study eosinophils in tumors of epithelial tissues with a particular focus on lung metastasis. First, we evaluated biopsies of breast cancer metastases in the lung and validated the initial observation that eosinophils indeed infiltrated the lungs during metastasis. Next, we used experimental animal models to demonstrate that eosinophils migrate into the lungs and penetrate metastatic tumors as they are forming. Importantly, further study revealed that eosinophils can have a potent anti-tumorigenic role in lung metastasis: animals that did not have any eosinophils as a result of experimental depletion showed substantially increased tumor growth. Ongoing studies to understand how eosinophils might fight against tumor growth have suggested that they interact with T-cells of the immune system, perhaps attracting them into the tumor, and that these T-cells mediate an immune response to decrease tumor growth. These recent findings are particularly exciting as interest in modulation of the immune system in tumor treatment has never been higher, and insights derived from these studies may well open new opportunities for improving cancer treatment.
What benefits could this research produce in the long term?
Our findings demonstrate anti-tumor activities of eosinophils in the metastatic tumor microenvironment. Since we identified a mechanism by which the tumor microenvironment trains eosinophils to adopt anti-tumorigenic properties, we hope that this will lead to the development of eosinophil-targeted therapeutics in cancer patients.
Can you tell us the role that ICRF has played in accelerating your career?
Funding from ICRF was instrumental in shifting some of my ideas from allergy to cancer. Initially, I was awarded a research career development award, which was the first cancer-related grant that I received. This enabled me to generate and test hypotheses regarding the roles of eosinophils in cancer. Since then, we have a greater understanding of the role of eosinophils in cancer and I believe that we are now considered international leaders in this field. We will continue working to uncover the role of eosinophils in cancer and have exciting data for further research. Hopefully, this will lead to future pharmacological developments.
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We are now considered international leaders in this field.
Professor Ariel Munitz
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Remembering Eve Wald, ICRF Chairperson Emeritus |
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Eve Wald, who served as Chairperson of ICRF in the early 2000's, passed away recently. Eve, a Holocaust survivor and soldier in the IDF, obtained her MA from Columbia University.
Eve had a passion for bridge, and played for many years in the Israel International Bridge Festival. When she learned about ICRF in 1986, she helped organize a tournament to raise funds for ICRF, which grew in attendance each season for many years.
"Raising funds to help Israeli scientists conduct their cancer research in Israel is our goal," she said in 2004. "I have come to know many of them over the years. They are brilliant, dedicated and very well trained. Many have graduated from the top postdoctoral programs in the United States and returned to Israel, with the help of ICRF."
"ICRF is grateful to Eve for her many years of devotion and service in the fight against cancer," remarked Dr. Yashar Hirshaut, former Chair and President Emeritus.
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ICRF Chicago Hosts Virtual Cancer Symposium
Please join ICRF Chicago, in partnership with the Cancer Wellness Center and Sharsheret, for a virtual cancer symposium, featuring prominent Chicagoland cancer organizations highlighting a variety of interesting topics on genomic testing, art therapy and body image, cancer patient and survivor insights. Registration is free, but required for all virtual sessions. Learn more and register today.
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Revolving Tables Evening for Chicago's Young Professionals
Registration is now open for Virtual Revolving Tables, a one-of-a-kind young professional networking event hosted by the ICRF Visions Board of Chicago. The program includes a special keynote speaker and each attendee will have the opportunity to participate in two Zoom breakout rooms with their choice of mentor leading the interactive conversation.
We have a top-notch line up of mentors in leading industries: tech, pharmaceutical, wellness, finance, food service, cannabis, venture capital, aviation, PR and more! Register today.
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ICRF CT Presents an Evening of Laughter
The Connecticut Chapter presents a social-educational evening at The Carousel at Mill River Park in Stamford, featuring comedian Dan Naturman (formerly of Stamford). He has appeared on Last Comic Standing and America's Got Talent. Dr. Daniel Rosenberg, Chair in Cancer Biology and Professor of Medicine, Director of Colon Cancer Prevention Program at University of Connecticut, Health Center, will update on "Cancer Research in Israel and Beyond." In-person $54 includes a meal; by Zoom $25. Sponsorship opportunities and raffle are available. Free parking. For reservations, please email: [email protected]
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