Stuart A. Aaronson, MD

Dr. Aaronson and his team have made significant progress in research aimed at identifying new markers for breast cancer and new mechanisms that can be targeted in breast cancer patients. They believe that their efforts to analyze a mammaglobin ELISA using already banked sera will make it possible to establish its efficacy in detection and/or staging of this disease. Gene discovery efforts within the BCRF-funded research have uncovered Wnt autocrine activation in a significant fraction of human breast cancers. The researchers will continue to explore mechanisms, as well as to investigate how inhibition of this signaling complements current therapeutic approaches.

They have also made exciting progress in identifying small molecule inhibitors of autocrine Wnt signaling, and these leads will be pursued as well. The Aaronson team's success in identifying small molecule inhibitors of a specific Wnt antagonist acting in bone will be directed at further optimization of selected compounds as well as efforts to establish proof of concept for positive effects on bone homeostasis in vivo. Their goals are to continue to leverage invaluable support from BCRF to take advantage of their exciting and potentially important breakthroughs, findings which offer the possibility of novel therapies for both breast cancer and osteoporosis.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
Dr. Aaronson and his colleagues have continued to make progress in assessing the potential clinical utility of mammaglobin as a serum marker for breast cancer detection and staging as well as in exploiting their findings of a Wnt autocrine transforming mechanism in a significant fraction of human breast and ovarian tumors. The researchers have focused efforts on further elucidating mechanisms and in determining whether inhibition of this pathway may make such tumors more sensitive to standard breast cancer therapies. Finally, they have identified small molecule leads after screening several chemical libraries, which are likely to modulate Wnt signaling in ways that may potentially ameliorate the morbidity associated with osteoporosis.

Bio:
Dr. Stuart Aaronson is an internationally recognized physician scientist, who has made pioneering discoveries into the molecular basis of human cancer. His discoveries include the first insights into the normal functions of cancer genes, and the identification of some of the first human cancer causing genes. One of his discoveries was the gene for a novel growth factor receptor, which he showed was activated as a cancer gene by amplification and/or overexpression in human breast and ovarian cancers. This discovery has led to the first approved drug directed against a cancer gene target. Dr. Aaronson's discoveries of growth factors have led to recent FDA approval of a drug derived from KGF, one of these discoveries. This drug is for treatment of oral mucositis, one of the most debilitating side effects of a number of radio/chemotherapies.

Dr. Aaronson completed his medical training at the University of California in San Francisco in 1969. Following an internship in medicine, he began his scientific career at the National Institutes of Health where he served in the Public Health Service for 25 years. He was Chief of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology at National Cancer Institute (NCI) from 1977-1993. During his tenure at the NCI, he established himself as a world authority in cancer biology and growth factor signaling, training and mentoring dozens of scientists, many of whom have gone on to major positions in academia and industry.

In 1993, Dr. Aaronson joined the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, as Aron Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oncological Sciences (formerly designated Ruttenberg Cancer Center). As Mount Sinai's leader of its cancer program, Dr. Aaronson has developed this major academic department with more than 80 primary and joint faculty.

For his research, Dr. Aaronson is the recipient of major honors including the Paul Ehrlich, Milken, and Chirone Prizes, the Rhoads Memorial Award as well as PHS Meritorious and Distinguished Service Medals. His discoveries have resulted in more than then 500 scientific articles and 50 patents awarded or pending. He has served on the editorial boards of every major journal in the field of cancer and has organized many international meetings including the Princess Takamatsu Symposium. He has also, served on the advisory boards of a number of cancer centers, the American Red Cross, Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine and as President of the Harvey Society.