Researchers to Identify Genetic Biomarkers for Aggressive Breast Cancer

The Avon Foundation for Women Supports Innovative Research that is Leading the Movement of Breast Cancer Treatments and Cures

Los Angeles - Sept. 10, 2013 – The Avon Foundation for Women has awarded a $300,000 grant to Dolores Di Vizio, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and a member of the Cancer Biology and Urologic Oncology Research Programs at the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute to advance scientific research in aggressive breast cancer.

Di Vizio will collaborate with the Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Program to investigate biomarkers in patient blood samples that may identify individuals with aggressive breast cancer. Biomarkers are genes or other molecules that can indicate a person's predisposition to specific medical conditions.

Research findings have the potential to create a novel standard of care and a new source of biomarkers. The possible new source of biomarkers, known as large oncosomes, are tumor-derived vesicles that transmit signaling complexes between cell compartments, providing valuable insight into the progression of disease. Findings may also help researchers and clinicians predict the aggressiveness of breast cancer earlier in the diagnostic process.

"This kind of research is the essential foundation to get us to our real goal, which is to improve diagnostic and prognostic capabilities and find effective treatments for breast cancer," said Di Vizio. "With this study, we hope to identify previously unrecognized large oncosomes as potential biomarkers in advanced tumors that can be visualized, quantified and isolated using methods easily translatable to the clinic."

Funding from the Avon Foundation for Women, a nonprofit organization and longtime supporter of Cedars-Sinai, will provide an opportunity for researchers to further spearhead new technologies, therapies and surgical interventions that may provide better patient outcomes, beginning at diagnosis.

Working with Di Vizio to provide these advancements is collaborator Beth Y. Karlan, MD, director of the Women's Cancer Program, director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Chair in Gynecologic Oncology and the director of the Cedars-Sinai Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program.

"I'm excited to be a collaborator on this research study, as it holds promise to provide tangible improvements in earlier diagnostics and detection in aggressive breast cancer and is perfectly aligned with the program goals of the Cedars-Sinai Women’s Cancer Program," said Karlan. "This Avon Foundation for Women grant will further our program's commitment to studying cancer biology, developing new approaches to early detection and preventing and improving cancer survival for all patients."

This is the first study on large oncosomes analyses in patients with breast cancer. Pilot funding for this grant is supported by the Martz Breast Cancer Discovery Fund.