Robert Benezra, PhD

Tumors need a blood supply to grow over a minimal size. Dr. Benezra and his colleagues developed a new drug that specifically inhibits the expression of the protein Id1 in tumor blood vessel cells. Id1 is necessary for these cells to form a functional vascular network, which supports the tumor with nutrients and oxygen. Treatment of experimental breast tumors in laboratory models with this new drug leads to severe vascular damage, slowed tumor growth and rendered the tumors more susceptible to chemo-therapeutic treatment. Finally, as a single agent this drug effectively blocked metastatic spread of cancer cells to the lung. In the coming year, the researchers will start treatment studies in a more clinically relevant tumor model and continue the combination studies with different chemotherapies and targeted therapies.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
Dr. Beneza’s group has developed a new drug that specifically inhibits the expression of the protein Id1 in tumor blood vessel cells. Id1 is necessary for these cells to form a functional vascular network, which supports the tumor with nutrients and oxygen. Treatment of experimental tumors in laboratory models with this new drug caused severe vascular damage, rendered the tumors more susceptible to chemotherapeutic treatment and blocked both primary tumor growth and metastatic spread to the lung. The researchers show now that a new variation of this targeted therapy might be useful in inhibiting the growth of the tumor cell itself which, in combination with their drug which inhibits the blood vessel supply, is likely to provide an added advantage in the treatment of human breast cancer.

Bio:
Robert Benezra is a Member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in the Department of Cell Biology and a Professor of Biology at Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. Before he joined Sloan-Kettering, Benezra worked at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle where he identified the Id proteins as dominant negative regulators of the helix-loop-helix protein family and has since gone on to identify these proteins as key regulators of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. In addition, while at Sloan-Kettering, Benezra and his colleagues identified the first human mitotic checkpoint gene, hsMad2, and demonstrated its requirement for the execution of the checkpoint, its ability to act as a negative regulator of the anaphase-promoting complex and its role in maintaining genomic stability in embryonic and somatic cells. His program continues to focus on the molecular basis of aneuploidy, tumor initiation and metastasis.