Layers of Discovery: Breakthroughs in Cancer Research

Rebecca Moroose, M.D. of Cancer Institute of Florida, P.A., kicked off the 2007 UCF Research Week with her address The Most Important Breakthroughs in Cancer Treatment in the Last Decade. Dr. Moroose began her presentation by showing a Salvador Dali painting, signifying the approach that she and her colleagues take when conducting breast cancer research—the ability to look at something from two different angles. The presentation covered some of the major breakthroughs in the history of breast cancer research and focused on the discovery that doctors made when they learned that hormone receptors play an important part of cancer research. HER2 receptor was discovered as an important link to researching breast cancer, and when there are extra copies of the HER2 receptor, they can pair off with others within the same family, which leads to cells growing, multiplying and moving throughout the human body. Patients with the HER2 gene typically have a poor outcome, but in recent years, an antibody called Herceptin was created to target the HER2 cells, which inhibits and kills the cells and ultimately helps the patient have a much longer life expectancy. Dr. Moroose explained that part of the research that went into this antibody was developing how to pick the target because no two cells or cancers are alike. With more than 200,000 women in the United States diagnosed with breast cancer in the last year and 25 to 30 percent of those patients typically have an over expression of the HER2 gene, doctors found that using the antibody earlier into the treatment of the patient had significant response rates.

Dr. Moroose looked to the future of targeted therapies and stated that several approaches are being developed and researchers are currently studying antibodies against tumors that spread and grow and also biological factors and how they can use them as predictors. Recently, a novel drug has come out named TIKER, which comes in a pill form and inhibits HER2 and its family members to be able to signal to one another. Doctors have written to Medicare in Florida and two-thirds of the insurance companies are currently on board with the Tiker pill, which was just approved by the FDA. Ending her presentation with a different Dali painting, Dr. Moroose reminded the audience that there are always different approaches to looking at something and that she believes the new UCF medical school will help with these research efforts and she sees great things for UCF!